In what figures to be a score for refined palates, the famous 1976 wine tasting in which California selections stunningly triumphed over older French vineyards will be portrayed in the opera “The Judgment of Paris” by composer Jake Heggie.

A rare comedy by Heggie, known best for turning Sister Helen Prejean's “Dead Man Walking” and Herman Melville's “Moby-Dick” into operas, will premiere on July 18 in a production the California's Festival Napa Valley announced Wednesday.

Soprano Danielle De Niese stars as Venus and baritone Quinn Kelsey as Bacchus in a work that mixes mythological gods with the real life people from the event at Paris' Intercontinental Hotel. The cast includes tenor Nicholas Phan as Steven Spurrier, mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh as Patricia Gallagher and soprano Bre

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