RichmondFreePress.com
Free Press Staff Report
January 29, 2026
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.