Mollicone and Luce have combined forces before, when they created A Rat's Tale: The Pied Piper Revisited, a work commissioned by the El Camino Youth Symphony. That one sets the Pied Piper legend on its ear by telling the folk tale through the viewpoint of the rat.

Gabriel's Daughter is 180 degrees different from that comic tale. It's the story of Clara Brown, a freed slave, and her search for her daughter, who had been sold into slavery. Clara Brown was well-known in Central City, having worked to make life better for freed slaves after the Civil War and to obtain justice for Native Americans.

Central City commissioned the opera and suggested the story line as well, because of the local tie-in. "It's an inspiring story, an inspiring subject for an opera," Mollicone says. "The subject is so strong it felt like it was writing itself, flowed more than others I've done, took on its own wings."

For Mollicone it also represents a reunion, a coming full circle. The conductor of the opera will be Don Moriarty, who teaches at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where Mollicone studied. It was Moriarty who turned Mollicone onto opera composing in the first place.

Another slice of serendipity: It's the 25th anniversary of Mollicone's one-act opera, The Face on the Barroom Floor, which was also commissioned by Central City Opera. That one has gone on to become one of the most oft-performed of contemporary operas in the country and has been presented in various European countries as well.

Face was designed to be presented in Central City's Teller Hall, where there really is a face on the barroom floor. That opera received the American Composers' Recording Award. Other Mollicone one-acts include Emperor Norton, Starbird and The Mask of Evil.

His full-length operas include Coyote Tales, with libretto by Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof), commissioned by Lyric Opera of Kansas City; and Hotel Eden, which premiered at Opera San José. Besides opera, Mollicone writes for orchestra, voice, chorus, ballet and chamber ensembles.

He has also written music for film, TV and theater. For the Broadway show 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he was musical assistant to Leonard Bernstein. Mollicone has served on National Endowment for the Arts panels and has been a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow since '97.

Now teaching at Notre Dame University in Belmont, he was also a professor at Santa Clara University for 14 years. He has been conductor and music director for the Santa Clara University Orchestra since '85. The Washington Post has called Mollicone one of the most distinctive American opera composers.

TOP TOY: Karen Scarvie, owner of The Wooden Horse in Los Gatos, has won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association, an organization she helped found. Scarvie is the first retailer to receive the award.

Cited as a visionary and "the conscience of the industry," Scarvie was honored both for her 32 years of running a successful business and her service to children and the industry she helped define.

She holds a master's degree in psychology and presents seminars to parents, educators and students throughout the Bay Area. Well-designed toys enrich a child's development and lead to healthy childhoods, is her mantra.

ALTERNATIVE MEDS: A new alternative medicine center on the first floor of Mission Oaks Hospital in Los Gatos is called Integrative and Wellness Medical Center and is the dream of veteran doctors Gerald Trobough and Jan Winetz.

Both wanted to incorporate alternative treatments along with traditional ones and to provide preventive programs as well. For more information, call 408.358.4962 or visit www.iwmc.info.

PITCHING PAL: Donations totaling more than $450,000 came in during the last week of the Final Push fundraising campaign for the PAL (Performing Arts & Lecture) Center for Saratoga High.

With more than 90 percent of the PAL Center's cost accrued, and the school board's approval and awarding of the contract, construction should begin this summer.

PAL—a project that's been in the works for many years—will finally become a reality, reports Bill Barmeier, president of the Saratoga High School Foundation.

NEW SENIOR BOARD: The new Saratoga Area Senior Coordinating Council board members are David Elgart, president; Marilyn White, vice president; Ethel James, secretary; and Ron Duffin, chief financial officer.

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