POTSDAM -- Students and faculty at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music are gearing up to unveil the first full productions of three ambitious new operatic works.

Six up-and-coming composers and librettists from around the country will travel to Potsdam, to work with the Crane Opera Ensemble and Orchestra, leading up to a performance featuring the winners of the 2014 Domenic J. Pellicciotti Opera Composition Prize.

Three operas were chosen from a pool of 74 submissions, which came from across the U.S., Canada and Europe. For the first round of this competition, works that focused on issues relevant to the LGBTQ community were particularly encouraged.

The three winning works will be presented from Thursday, Nov. 13 to Saturday, Nov. 15, with performances at 7:30 p.m. in the Sara M. Snell Music Theater at The Crane School of Music. A gala reception will be held in the Performing Arts Center lobby following the Thursday evening opening night

The featured opera, which will be performed in full, is "A Letter to East 11th Street," with libretto by Mark Campbell and music by Martin Hennessy. It is an intimate opera that affirms, with wit and pathos, the enduring bonds of love, as it charts the impact of the AIDS epidemic on two best friends -- first in the early years of the disease and then 10 years later. In 1989, Rick Driscoll, a young man with AIDS, has returned to the suburban house in which he grew up and videotapes a letter to his best friend and former roommate, Susan. A decade later, Susan muses on all that has happened since Rick's death, and toasts her best friend.

The other winners include "In a Mirror, Darkly," with music by Christopher Weiss and libretto by S. O'Duinn Magee, and "The Fox and the Pomegranate," with music by Matt Frey and libretto by Daniel J. Kushner. The opera ensemble will present one act from each of these operas.

Tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for SUNY Potsdam students, faculty and staff. Tickets are available by calling the Community Performance Series Box Office at 267-2277, or the CPS Box Office in the lobby of SUNY Potsdam's Performing Arts Center. You can also reserve online, by visiting www.cpspotsdam.org.

The Friday night performance will be streamed live at www.potsdam.edu/academics/Crane/streaming.