Miss Havisham's Fire Miss Havisham's Fire Miss Havisham's Fire is an opera in 2 acts by composer Dominick Argento with an English language libretto by John Olon-Scrymgeour. The work is loosely based on Charles Dickens' 1861 novel "Great Expectations", and centers on an investigation of the circumstances surrounding the death of Aurelia Havisham. Commissioned by the New York City Opera, the work premiered on March 22, 1979, at the David H. Koch Theater at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in Manhattan. "Miss Havisham's Fire" was initially intended to be a farewell vehicle for soprano Beverly Sills, but she pulled out of
Elizabeth Dickens (ornithologist) Clement, in a 1959 "Yankee Magazine" article about Elizabeth Dickens, coined the title “Bird Lady of Block Island” for Miss Dickens. Her biography was written by Herbert S. Whitman. Elizabeth Dickens (ornithologist) Elizabeth Dickens, known as the "Bird Lady of Block Island", (born 2 Dec 1877, died 17 Jun 1963) was an American ornithologist. Dickens was born and lived her entire life on Block Island, Rhode Island. She was an eighth generation descendant of Nathaniel Dickens (1614-1692), an early settler of Block Island who arrived from the mainland in 1679. She was the last member of that family line to