Minneapolis composer Jake Runestad had a blast writing the music for a bloody mini-opera.

"Daughters of the Bloody Duke" sounds more like the title of a Vincent Price camp horror flick than a new opera. And that's fine with its Minneapolis-based composer, Jake Runestad."There's not a lot of comedic opera being written now, and I like making people laugh," he said. Loosely based on a Greek tragedy, the 20-minute work (with libretto by David Johnston) receives its world premiere Friday from the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center in D.C. along with two other short operas. The synopsis: A duke with 40 daughters is marrying them all off to the 40 sons of a ruler from a neighboring land. On the wedding night, he instructs the daughters to all kill their husbands so he can overpower his rival. "Throughout you hear screams and shouts offstage as they fall, like, '14!' and '23!,'" Runestad said. "One daughter, Margot, falls in love with her husband and questions whether she should listen to Dad or follow her heart." Side characters include grandma's ghost and a drunken sister who keeps stumbling into Margot's room asking if she's killed her hubby yet.