APOCRYPHA WATCH: The opera Tobias and the Angel is to be performed in Baltimore.

If The Yellow Wallpaper is confined to a bedroom, British composer Jonathan Dove’s Tobias and the Angel was written for a sacred space; it will be performed in the nave of Mount Vernon’s Emmanuel Episcopal Church in late February.

The Opera Vivente production is the North American premiere of the work, which is based on the Old Testament Book of Tobit. (Regarded as apocryphal by Protestants and Jews, the book was probably written in the 2nd century B.C.)The opera follows Tobit’s son Tobias on a mission to collect money; he is accompanied by the angel Raphael in disguise, who helps him see the divine in all things. General director John Bowen describes this production as “a communal event,” involving the children’s chorus of the Handel Choir of Baltimore, student dancers from the Baltimore School for the Arts, and members of local chorales along with professional opera singers, including acclaimed countertenor David Walker as the angel Raphael.

“The Apocrypha is equally claimed—or disclaimed—by both Judaism and Christianity,” Bowen says. “It’s very much an interfaith story.”