‘Brokeback Mountain’ opera opening in Madrid this week
By Sam Rigby
An opera version of Brokeback Mountain is to receive its world premiere in Madrid this week.
The English-language production opens at Madrid’s Teatro Real Opera House on Tuesday (January 28) and will run until February 11.
Annie Proulx – author of the original short story – said that she “rejoiced” when composer Charles Wuorinen approached her to write the libretto for the opera.
She added that the production “would give room, which the short story did not, and which the film was not particularly interested in doing,” to the characters of Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist.
“It is very beautiful as the film shows,” Wuorinen told the AP, “but it is definitely not sentimental, it is not a romantic landscape, it’s a deadly one – it’s dangerous.”
Daniel Okulitch, who plays Del Mar, said that the music is “very challenging”.
The production was commissioned by the New York Opera in 2008, but was later brought to Madrid’s Teatro Real by general director Gerard Mortier when he left New York.