Yes, Richard Danielpour's score for the new opera Margaret Garner is ambitious and soaring. And the work of all of the performers, especially the luminous Denyce Graves in the title role, is superb and even daring. But the queen of the night at the East Coast premiere this past Friday was the librettist, Toni Morrison.

The plot is drawn from a true story that formed the basis for Morrison's best-selling book Beloved. For this libretto, her first, Morrison does not flinch from the horrors of slavery, an obscenity she powerfully conveys with concise and evocative language. Her experience as a novelist may explain the odd structure of the opera, with a leisurely first act that allows for a full fleshing-out of her characters, followed by a final act that tightly compresses a series of crucial plot developments. That second act by itself has more than enough material for an opera.

The advantage of this unusual approach is that with the exception of the vile plantation hand, Casey, there are no stereotypes. Even slave owner Edward Gaines (Rod Gilfrey) is transformed into a tragic figure by the end. And in that immensely moving final scene, following the death of Margaret, Morrison transcends the obvious Christian imagery of salvation and redemption to encompass not only the passing of a people out of slavery, but the looming struggle for the soul of the whole nation, as slaves and slave owners alike sing, "Have mercy. Have mercy on us. Help us break through the night."

Danielpour's music is highly accessible, Puccini-esque, to put it succinctly. He draws from African-American sources for some of the scenes in the slave quarters and especially for the sublimely dignified, gospel-infused choruses that bracket the opera. Despite a peppering of dissonance, the music has a viscous profile that borders on the saccharine, notably so at full throttle. Danielpour is at his best when dovetailing Morrison's poetic dialogues to carefully contoured musical lines, such as in the radiant Act 2 duet between Margaret and her mother-in-law, Cilla.

That duet was also a showcase for truly magnificent singing by Graves and Angela Brown, leading a cast that seemed inspired by the occasion. The whole event, a co-production by Opera Company of Philadelphia, Michigan Opera Theatre and Cincinnati Opera, was triumphant, with bold performances and simple, yet elegant staging. Is Margaret Garner in need of a bit of tinkering? Probably. Is it an opera worth hearing again, even one deserving of a place in the standard repertoire? Absolutely. Urgently.