Salman Rushdie & Charles Wuorinen. Photo by Susan Johann.

Salman Rushdie’s novel “Satanic Verses” so scandalized Ayatollah Khomeini that he issued a fatwa, or decree, calling for the author’s death, surely a most extreme sort of literary criticism. Only temporarily silenced, Rushdie then wrote another work, “Haroun and the Sea of Stories,” to explain to his young son, in children’s terms, what had occurred. As part of its repertory at the New York State Theater this fall, the New York City Opera is presenting five performances (October 31 to November 11) of “Haroun and the Sea of Stories,” a new opera by composer Charles Wuorinen and poet James Fenton, based on Rushdie’s later opus.

Conducted by George Manahan, Wuorinen’s music for Fenton’s lyrical text, largely tonal with some dissonance, fusing Western and Eastern elements, is accessible. The cast, headed by soprano Heather Buck and bass-baritone Peter Strummer, is superb. The production by director Mark Lamos, designers Riccardo Hernandez (sets), Candice Donnelly (costumes), Robert Wierzel (lighting) and Peter Nigrini (projections), and choreographer Seán Curran is colorful and imaginative. And this fantastic, escapist fairy tale, albeit with serious underpinnings, provided just the distraction some of us needed in the wake of the devastating results of the presidential election.

The second performance, on November 3, is considered here.

In “Haroun,” villains stifle imagination, pollute air and water, break up relationships and break down spirit, while heroes rescue literature, natural resources, kidnapped princess and straying spouse alike. We find Rashid (Strummer, affable as the Rushdie figure), when introduced, an irrepressible storyteller, all bubbly inspiration, alliteration, puns and rhymes. Then his wife Soraya, a singer, (mezzo-soprano Heather Johnson) leaves him for Sengupta (tenor James Schaffner), who “has no imagination at all and that’s okay with” her. (I was reminded here of the scene in Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George” when Dot, fed up with the quirks of the artist Seurat, runs off with Louis, the prosaic baker.) Rashid’s son, Haroun (the plucky Buck) hits him with Sengupta’s words, “What’s the use of stories that aren’t even true?” His wellspring of tales dries up and the tyrannical politician Snooty Buttoo (tenor Joel Sorensen) further shackles him by hiring him to channel his talent into propagandistic “praising” stories extolling the would-be despot. Rashid’s next enemy is Khattam-Shud (literally “the end,” and also played by Schaffner), prince of silence, the ultimate censor and polluter, who is poisoning the Sea of Stories, from which all tales flow. The nemeses seem to blend, as the resemblance among Sengupta, Buttoo and Khattam-Shud is noted and Schaffner and Sorensen have, aptly, similar voices and imbue the latter two figures with the same flamboyance.

Haroun sets out on a quest to quash the evildoers, save the sea, and help his father find his tongue. Rushdie acknowledges the film of “The Wizard of Oz” as his “first literary influence” and, as Dorothy is accompanied on her adventures by the farmhands-turned-Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman and Cowardly Lion, already embodying, despite their professed inadequacies, intelligence, love and bravery, so does Haroun have three indispensable companions as his guides. Iff, the water genie of the Sea of Stories (tenor Ryan McPherson), encourages the exploration of possibility. Butt the Hoopoe, a mechanical bird, earlier seen as Butt the bus driver (bass Ethan Herschenfeld), provides direction as a navigator with no-how. Mali, the floating gardener, later the good King of Gup (experienced and versatile bass Wilbur Pauley), is adept at disentangling both weeds and story lines (like an editor) and completes the trio that any blocked writer would be happy to know.

They meet the romantic, if tone-deaf Prince Polo (lyric tenor Christopher Jackson), the King’s son, bereft of his Princess Batcheat (mezzo-soprano Kathryn Friest), abducted by Khattam-Shud and forced, per the plot, to caterwaul the blues most appallingly. Haroun’s first attempt to save the princess—permitted, in this dream sequence, to sing on pitch—goes awry as he turns into a spider, not unlike the louche Chups, followers of Khattam-Shud and enemies of the Gups. This proves that the Sea of Stories has been befouled, to which Bagha and Goopy, a pair of brilliant-hued fish (tenors Andrew Drost and Robert Mack in elaborate costumes), drooping from swimming through the muck, attest.

Ultimately, the Gups vanquish the Chups. The princess is restored to her prince. Rashid eloquently speaks out against the vile Snooty Buttoo. And, completing the feel-good evening, Haroun’s wish is granted when, heralded by Oneeta, Sengupta’s estranged wife (mezzo-soprano Edith Dowd), the boy’s mother returns to his father (because “there’s no place like home”). Now if only the election had turned out as well…

New York City Opera at the New York State Theater, 20 Lincoln Center

Remaining performances November 6 at 1:30 p.m. (tickets $32-115), 9 & 11 at 7:30 p.m. ($27-105)