Some people are late bloomers. Then there is Richard Alan White, 82, who was a composer-in-hiding for the first eight decades of his life.

As a young man in New York City, Mr. White found that being a classically trained composer was not exactly a meal ticket. So he found work wearing a badge, first as a probation investigator for the city and later as a Columbia University security guard.

It afforded him both a livelihood and, oddly, the opportunity to compose. He retired a decade ago with a small pension and a 900-page opera called “Hester,” based on “The Scarlet Letter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The work was recently selected by the Center for Contemporary Opera for a workshop performance on Oct. 12 at the National Opera Center Recital Hall in Manhattan.