An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (opera)

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a one-act radio opera composed by Scottish-born American composer Thea Musgrave. Musgrave also wrote the libretto, basing it on the 1890 short story of the same name by Ambrose Bierce. The opera, commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation, premiered on BBC Radio 3 in 1982. The first stage performance was in 1988.

Musgrave, who has lived in the United States since 1972, said she would not have been able to write the opera without having lived in the American South and gotten a feel for its language. Musgrave dedicated the opera to her husband, Peter Mark, who was artistic director of the Virginia Opera for thirty-five years.

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera said Occurrence was "a true radio opera, evolving its own narrative modes and taking imaginative account of the limitations and potentialities of the medium." Brian Morton said of the staged production "Musgrave's scoring for baritone, speakers, tape, and orchestra is as daring a use for voice in Britain this century and the equal of anything done by Benjamin Britten."