I’m not an opera queen, but if I were, I would probably be into Brokeback Mountain in opera form. Charles Wuorinen‘s operatic take on the gay cowboys-in-love classic is set to premiere in Madrid, starring bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch and tenor Tom Randle as Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist. The original writer of the short story that the movie and opera were based on, Annie Proulx, wrote the libretto for it.
You’re asking, and I’m telling – are there sex scenes? It doesn’t look like it. I mean, it’s opera. There’s some shadowplay in a tent and then the afterglow in their bunk. No one’s meshed porn and opera yet. But Manhunt is looking into it.
If you can’t afford to make it to Madrid, Towleroad reports that Medici.TV will present a free webcast of the premiere from Madrid’s Teatro Real on Friday, February 7 at 2pm (EST).
– J. Harvey
Check out some pics and a clip from the opera-version of Brokeback Mountain below:
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LOL this was news years ago – maybe a year after the movie came out in 2005? – that this was being adapted into an opera. But at that point the opera was set to premiere at New York City Opera, which as of Fall 2013 no longer exists.
I’m glad the creators of this work have found another company to premiere it. I’ve listened to a couple excerpts of the show. I hope no one is expecting a thrilling and/or lush score like you would hear in Puccini, Strauss, Wagner, or Verdi. It’s definitely a 20th century sound. It’s more like the scores of “minimalist” composers… maybe even atonal. I hope it does well.
Oh, and there are lots of operas about a lot of shady things… there’s an opera about Anna Nicole Smith that premiered in the UK a year or so ago; it also played in NYC at City Opera. Even Verdi’s masterpiece La Traviata is about a sex worker… and that was in the 19th century. Why do you think it’s used in Pretty Woman? They have very similar story lines. Don’t sell yourself short – opera has a long, tried and true standing with scandalous topics. We’re not all prudes. 😉
Daniel Okulitch played the lead in the opera production of the movie “The Fly”. Check out a pic and video clip of him with full frontal from the production
http://welclometomyworld0426.blogspot.com/2014/01/daniel-okulitch-in-fly.html