The Minnesota Opera recently announced that it has commissioned an opera based on Stephen King's The Shining. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec will work with librettist Mark Campbell to adapt King's 1977 horror classic.
The opera will receive its world première in 2016.
The Shining already exists as a highly successful book and as a cult movie directed by Stanley Kubrick. Why make an opera about it?
Writing an opera about The Shining seems about as appropriate as writing an oratorio about the Rocky Horror Picture Show or a ballet about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
When Jack Nicholson chops through the door with an ax, what doesn't come to mind is, "this is a great moment for an aria."
Dale Johnson, artistic director of the Minnesota Opera, said to the Star Tribune: "Today's audiences want to see stories about them, to look on stage and see familiar characters."
Well...maybe so, but Jack Torrance in The Shining isn't one of them.
Is re-making The Shining as an opera similar to making movie versions of old TV shows, like Get Smart or The Addams Family? Is it part of the same trend, endlessly re-packaging pop culture to appeal to baby boomer nostalgia?
These were some of the thoughts that raced through my mind when I heard the Minnesota Opera's news.
But then another thought occurred to me. Is there a horror opera?
I'm not talking about verismo operas like Tosca or tales of bloody murder like Macbeth. I mean real horror--suspenseful, atmospheric, eerie tales, with creepy music to match.
A Google search for "horror opera" turned up two more King novels that were recently turned into operas.
Children of the Mist, an opera by Sean Pflueger, is the story of a small town in Maine that is inundated by mist. Any time anyone ventures out into the mist, they are killed by nameless creatures.
King approved an opera version of his novel Dolores Claiborne, with music by Tobias Picker, that was recently premièred by the San Francisco Opera (although this story is really more of a psychological thriller than a true horror story).
The concept of a horror opera seems to have possibilities, though.
Just as long as it isn't set in the Overlook Hotel.
