Davis’s score is eclectic in design. Like Thomson, he has an affinity for early American hymnody and shape-note spirituals, materials he affectingly evoked. Repetition is omnipresent in Frank’s libretto, and Davis’s responses to it were varied.

The year 2018 is shaping up to be a major one for composer Daniel Thomas Davis. On Feb. 15 and 16, he will witness the staged premiere of his 2015 opera “Family Secrets: Kith and Kin” and then, just a few weeks later, his opera “Six. Twenty. Outrageous,” will also get its world premiere.