On Friday, February 7, “The Garment of Praise,” a new opera by Fr. Kevin Waters, SJ, will premiere at Gonzaga University’s Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center. The opera, a story of hope, communion, loss and the love of God is about John the Baptist’s parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah, in the days before the miraculous birth of their son.
Fr. Waters, 91, served for more than three decades at Gonzaga as a professor of music and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. In 2021, he moved to Sacred Heart Jesuit Center, the health care/retirement community for the Jesuits West Province.
For decades, Fr. Waters, an organist and pianist, would begin each day composing music for an hour. He has been working on “The Garment of Praise” for many years, pairing with Shann Ray Ferch, a poet and professor of leadership at Gonzaga who wrote the opera’s libretto.
This is Fr. Waters’ fourth opera. His first, “Dear Ignatius, Dear Isabel” was commissioned by Loyola University Maryland to commemorate the school’s 125th anniversary in 1977. Fr. Waters knew two things: He did not want his opera to be an all-male production, and he wanted to have a strong woman as its main character. He found his inspiration in a book by Hugo Rahner, “St. Ignatius Loyola: Letters to Women.”
The opera tells the story of the remarkable friendship between St. Ignatius of Loyola and Isabella Roser, a wealthy widow, patron and pen pal of Ignatius who frequently exchanged letters with the founder of the Society of Jesus.
His second opera, “The Mask of Hiroshima,” done in the classical Japanese style of a Noh drama with dialogue and songs, is about the 1945 aftermath of the dropping of the atomic bomb.
Edith Stein, the German Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a nun, is the focus of his third opera. Murdered in the gas chamber at Birkenau because of her Jewish heritage, Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was canonized in 1998 by Pope John Paul II.

The opera about Edith Stein has never been produced, which is not surprising given the challenges and expense of staging productions. The upcoming premiere of “The Garment of Praise” required a tremendous collaborative effort and many years of fundraising. Sponsors include Gonzaga University’s School of Leadership Studies, the Provost’s Office, the Office of Mission and Integration, the School of Education, and the College of Arts and Sciences.
Fr. Waters is headed to Spokane for the opera’s premiere, while back at his home community of Sacred Heart Jesuit Center, his fellow Jesuits and staff will be watching the livestream.
When asked which of his four operas he is proudest of, Fr. Waters says, “When you have multiple children, you cannot choose one as your favorite.” As he contemplates the excitement of the upcoming premiere he added, “I have the anxieties of an expectant parent.”
You can watch the opera live on February 7 at 7 p.m. PST at this link.