http://www.twincities.com/entertainm...ll-be-an-opera
An oft-adapted horror classic is getting another life: as an opera.

Minnesota Opera has obtained the rights to Stephen King's "The Shining" and commissioned composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell to write it.

The opera, which will be directed by Eric Simonson (who directed "Wuthering Heights" and "The Grapes of Wrath" for Minnesota Opera), will premiere in May 2016 at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul. The basis of both a Stanley Kubrick film, which King didn't like, and a TV miniseries, which King himself wrote, "The Shining" features the Torrance family -- alcoholic father Jack, meek mom Wendy and their telepathic son, Danny -- trapped in a deserted hotel that has a mysterious connection to the underworld. In a news release, Moravec says of the King novel: "It features the classic elements of operatic conflict, notably the power of love in the face of extraordinary evil and destructive forces. It's a joy to imagine the musical form of this timeless contest."

"The Shining," the title of which refers to Danny's telepathic powers, is part of the opera's New Works Initiative, a seven-year program to develop new operas and to develop new places to present opera.

Launched in 2008, the New Works Initiative brought international acclaim to Minnesota Opera for "Silent Night," which won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for music. Other New Works productions include last season's adaptation of the Tony-winning "Doubt" and the coming adaptation of "The Manchurian Candidate," the Richard Condon political thriller about an assassination plot. Like "The Shining," "Doubt" and "The Manchurian Candidate" also have been adapted into popular films.

"Doctor Sleep," King's sequel to "The Shining," which follows middle-aged Danny Torrance into another battle of good against evil, will be released Sept. 24.

For more information on Minnesota Opera's "The Shining," go to mnop.co/the-shining.


http://www.mnopera.org/season/2015-2016/the-shining/

Minnesota Opera announces its commission of The Shining, a new opera by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell, based on the 1977 best-selling novel by Stephen King. Minnesota Opera will give The Shining its world premiere in May 2016 at Ordway in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

The Shining is the iconic supernatural horror novel that helped establish Stephen King as the genre’s definitive voice. In the story, Jack Torrance moves his wife Wendy and son Danny to the remote Overlook Hotel in Colorado, where he has been hired as winter caretaker. The family endeavors to remain together in spite of their growing isolation from the world, the hotel’s paranormal activity and Jack’s abusive nature, alcoholism and growing madness.

“It is tremendously exciting to have received Stephen King’s permission to adapt The Shining into an opera,” said Artistic Director Dale Johnson. “Opera has the unique ability to amplify a story’s emotions, and by putting one of the most powerfully imagined stories of our time into the hands of Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell, I have no doubt The Shining will be an intensely thrilling horror opera.”

Paul Moravec, a prolific composer whose music has been described as “highly engrossing” and “remarkably accessible,” considers The Shining a perfect fit for the art form. “King’s novel is naturally operatic: it sings,” said Moravec. “It features the classic elements of operatic conflict, notably the power of love in the face of extraordinary evil and destructive forces. It’s a joy to imagine the musical form of this timeless contest, along with the story’s evocation of terror and the supernatural.”

A film based on King’s novel, directed by Stanley Kubrick, was released in 1980, and in 1997, Mr. King adapted his book into a television mini-series. Minnesota Opera’s commission is the work’s first adaptation for the stage. Doctor Sleep, a sequel to The Shining that follows the middle-aged Danny Torrance into another epic battle of good against evil, will be released on September 24, 2013.

“I really look forward to working with Paul to help make King’s original story sing,” said Mark Campbell, the librettist for Minnesota Opera’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Silent Night and the upcoming world premiere of The Manchurian Candidate (both with composer Kevin Puts). “I’m thrilled to once again be working with everyone from Minnesota Opera and the New Works Initiative, director Eric Simonson and maestro Michael Christie.”

The commission of The Shining launches the second generation of Minnesota Opera’s New Works Initiative. A pioneering movement in new opera when it was launched in 2008, the Initiative was designed to invigorate the operatic art form with an infusion of contemporary works and formalized Minnesota Opera’s commitment to artistic growth, leadership and innovation. Its first iteration – a seven-season commitment to producing premieres and revivals of new works – funded the commissions of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning Silent Night (Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell), last season’s Doubt by Douglas J. Cuomo and librettist John Patrick Shanley and the upcoming political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate (also by Puts and Campbell), which will have its premiere in March 2015.

Now in the penultimate year of that first phase, Minnesota Opera reveals the future of the New Works Initiative. This next iteration is being conceived as a 10-year program that will not only encompass major commissions like The Shining for its mainstage season at the Ordway, but endeavors to further invigorate the art form and expand its audience by creating new works conceived for non-traditional opera venues. To that end, a hallmark of this new program will be the creation of local and national partnerships to develop new ways of creating, workshopping and presenting opera. Programmatic plans will be released seasonally.