Daniel Carter’s journey with “The Other Wise Man” started on a scorching summer day in an Oklahoma antiques mall in the mid-’90s. Something about the 1896 Henry van Dyke novella — a sort of biblical fanfic about a fourth magus whose quest to deliver precious gifts to the Christ Child is repeatedly thwarted — spoke to him. Carter bought the book and immediately started scribbling song ideas in the margins.
This week, after several rewrites and personal setbacks including two periods of homelessness, the composer will present the latest and perhaps definitive version of “Artaban, the Other Wise Man, the Musical.