Trenton's intrepid, accomplished Boheme Opera has tended to offer its patrons traditional "red sauce" fare. Their first move into American operatic musical theater couldn't be smarter: Carlisle Floyd's 1955 Susannah, a powerful, tuneful updating of the Biblical story of Susanna and the elders fueled by McCarthyism. The Floridian composer, 28 at the time, filled Susannah with folk idioms appropriate to New Hope Valley, Tenn., but also the lyrical power to do justice to this wrenching story of innocence accused and betrayed: a stinging indictment of fundamentalist hypocrisy and xenophobic small-mindedness that couldn't be more timely. (Plus you'll be humming "The Trees on the Mountains" for weeks.) It's worth a trip to Trenton just to see Boheme's spectacular art deco venue. But conductor Joseph Pucciatti also engages high-quality young singers. Adina Aaron (pictured), acclaimed as Aida in Franco Zeffirelli's DVD production, has excelled in Trenton in Carmen and Don Giovanni and should prove a sonorous, powerfully moving Susannah. Kenneth Gayle of the renowned "Three Mo' Tenors" portrays her feckless brother Sam. (This may be the first time in Susannah's history that both characters have been sung by African-American artists, a striking idea.) Daniel Okulitch, a charismatic Canadian baritone who appeared in Baz Luhrmann's Broadway La Bohème, gets the monumental part of Rev. Olin Blitch, whose efforts to "save" Susannah take a disastrous turn. Matthew Chellis, a talented New York City Opera tenor, plays the heroine's other betrayer.