"Brokeback Mountain" To Become An Opera

NEW YORK — The New York City Opera commissioned Charles Wuorinen to compose an opera based on "Brokeback Mountain," the 1997 short story by Annie Proulx that became the basis for a 2005 movie that won three Academy Awards.

The opera is scheduled to premiere in spring 2013, City Opera said Sunday. It will be City Opera's second Wuorinen premiere, following "Haroun and the Sea of Stories," which was based on a Salman Rushdie novel and opened in October 2004.

"Ever since encountering Annie Proulx's extraordinary story I have wanted to make an opera on it, and it gives me great joy that Gerard Mortier and New York City Opera have given me the opportunity to do so," Wuorinen said in a statement.

"Brokeback Mountain" is a cowboy romance about two ranch-hand buddies who start a homosexual affair when they meet on the fictional mountain in 1963.

Comments

[Eric8869]

02:25 PM on 06/10/2008

I think the Bush Presidency should be an opera.

An incompetent alcoholic Prince who comes to power to Avenge the lost war of his Father the King.

The resulting war not only destroys the kingdom but brings down the ruler himself revealing his evil plans to the world.

Cheney is such a shakesperean Villain - almost typecasting really.

[brooklyncitizen]

02:53 AM on 06/11/2008

Interesting.
But after living through it who would watch?

[CJGibson]

12:51 PM on 06/10/2008

"I don't know how to love him.
What to do, how to move him.
I've been changed, yes really changed.
In these past few days, when I've seen myself,
I seem like someone else.
I don't know how to take this.
I don't see why he moves me.
He's a man. He's just a man.
And I've had so many men before,
In very many ways,
He's just one more."

[mcyina]

10:54 AM on 06/10/2008

WHY???????????

[SiberianRat]

09:28 AM on 06/10/2008

Wow, not sure I can picture it. Oh well, give it a shot...ya never know...

[dora rice]

05:58 AM on 06/10/2008

REAL PORNO PICTURE THAT'S WHAT WE NEED.....

[Leper]

12:41 AM on 06/10/2008

At least Andrew Lloyd Webber isn't getting his hands on it. It has an outside shot of being respectable.

[sammy333]

10:52 PM on 06/09/2008

I think a ballet would have been more appropriate.

[1rewd1]

04:31 PM on 06/09/2008

Epic fail ....

[Topfeeder]

02:12 PM on 06/09/2008

Are there no new ideas?

[citizenofmars]

02:05 PM on 06/09/2008

I hear Adam Sandler will star....

[loki]

01:26 PM on 06/09/2008

Now I support full equal rights for gays and always have , always will, but you have to admit. This is funny..
Broke Back the Opera !

[seamusnh]

12:04 PM on 06/09/2008

I thought it would have been an upbeat musical...

[ptillen]

12:03 PM on 06/09/2008

Could be really beautiful. It's a classic story in the tradition of Puccini & Verdi... love, loss, longing. I look forward to hearing it.

[raker]

01:31 PM on 06/09/2008

Maybe it would work as an opera where plots can be a tad fantastical, but I thought the movie was fake from end to end. It was a straight person's idea of what same-sex sex and love would be like.

[alembic54]

11:20 AM on 06/09/2008

I wish I knew how to quit you! SOO-EEE

[Grada3784]

10:43 AM on 06/09/2008

The ones who are sexually secure won't have a problem with it. Just the insecure ones.