With Richmond’s Civil War past as its backdrop, a new opera brings the city’s hidden history of espionage to the forefront through music, storytelling and live performance.

The Library of Virginia and Virginia Opera will present a free panel discussion and live musical performance exploring Civil War-era spy networks that inspired the opera “Intelligence.” 

“Decoding ‘Intelligence’: The Real- Life Spy Network Behind the Opera” will be held in the lecture hall at the Library of Virginia on Wednesday, Feb. 4, from 6 to 7:15 p.m. Registration is required at lva-virginia.libcal.com/event/16275895. 

Historians Trenton Hizer, the library’s senior manuscripts acquisition and digital archivist; Nathan Hall, a park ranger for the National Park Service; and author Libby Carty McNamee will discuss espionage efforts, acts of resistance and figures such as Elizabeth Van Lew and Mary Jane Bowser whose lives helped shape the opera. 

The discussion will be moderated by Adam Turner, artistic director and chief conductor of Virginia Opera, and will be followed by a live musical performance by Virginia Opera. 

Set in Richmond during the final months of the Civil War, “Intelligence” centers on Van Lew, a socialite from a prominent Confederate family who operated a secret pro-Union spy network, and Bowser, a woman born into slavery who becomes a Union spy after being placed in the Confederate White House. 

According to the synopsis, Bowser gathers intelligence from Jefferson Davis’ home and helps relay information north through Van Lew’s network while Confederate authorities grow increasingly suspicious. As the danger escalates, secrets surrounding Bowser’s past emerge, forcing her to confront long-buried truths about her family and her own history. By the opera’s conclusion, Bowser chooses to leave Richmond to reclaim her story.