Could you elaborate on those feelings, Scott? I for one am excited by this development, even if the results prove mediocre--but disastrous would be, well, disastrous.
Do you feel pessimistic based on Wuorinen's style or skills? I should note that I've heard nothing by him. Or do you think that the subject itself simply doesn't lend itself to the operatic form?
You asked fo it...you got it babe.
Brokeback Mountain would not work as an opera on several levels, the first being the most critical. Opera, by its very nature, is not a visual medium, but an auditory one. The form relies very heavily on melodramatic situations as opposed to intimate (albeit intense) dramatic interchanges. With that said
Brokeback Mountain is too intimate and quiet a tale to transfer to an operatic environment. To further illustrate this point, in the summer of 2006, I was fortunate enough to attend the premier of Ned Rorem’s
Our Town. While the approach and the music itself were quite lovely, the whole was disaster. Without a melodramatic impulse, it amounted to almost three hours of andante and adagio, with very little for the audience to hang their anticipation on. There was no dramatic hook to propel the music to any kind of satisfying climax.
Another level that would spell doom to a venture like this is that without words, there is no opera. It should be quite apparent to anyone reading the original story by Annie Proulx, or even the screenplay, that there is very little in the way of dialogue, and even less in the way of extended speaking by any of the characters. This would require the librettecist create what was not there to begin with, and it is highly doubtful that lighting could strike three times, by creating a deeper understanding of these characters than has already been done. Along the lines of language, I think it may prove monumental in size, trying to adapt the actual language of
Brokeback Mountain into listenable singing.
As far as Charles Wuorinen is concerned, I am somewhat flummoxed by Annie Proulx’s choice (and let’s face it, it is her choice) of this particular composer. His distaste for anything romantic, neo-romantic, or even idiomatic is almost as legendary as his exultation of Schoenberg and his twelve tone system as the equivalent of the second coming of Christ. What helps to makes
Brokeback Mountain the tragedy that it is, is that it centers heavily on its setting (the rural west), and all the idioms that go along with that. I don’t think that Mr. Wuorinen is up to the task nor does he posses the innate skill to adapt his music to the story. It would end up sounding like two educated men whining about their unrequited love using musical themes that are not accessible to the general public, and even more so Americans
