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Charles Wuorinen Writing Operatic Adaptation of Brokeback Mountain

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Phillip Dampier:
From Opera News:
Charles Wuorinen Writing Operatic Adaptation of Brokeback Mountain
September 26, 2007

Pulitzer prize-winning composer Charles Wuorinen is writing an operatic adaptation of Brokeback Mountain, after having been given the consent of the short story's author, Annie Proulx, the New York Daily News has reported.

The choice of Wuorinen, whose aggressively modern musical language is couched in an adherence to the tenants of twelve-tone composition, is something of a surprising choice for an opera based on the affecting love story of two gay cowboys. Wuorinen won the Pulitzer in 1970 for his electronic composition Time's Encomium. His most recent opera, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, based on on Salman Rushdie's 1990 novel and featuring a libretto by the acclaimed author, premiered at New York City Opera in October 2004.

Proulx, who in 1997 penned the original short-story for the New Yorker, on which the Academy Award-winning movie was based, was named as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2000.

No opera company has been announced as formally attached to the project. News of an operatic adaptation of Brokeback Mountain ostensibly put to rest rumors that the story was headed for a Broadway stage. 

Artiste:
And yet when I asked for it, no one wanted that, since everyone put me down; but now will most Bettermost members wake up ?

Front-Ranger:
yes, I think we will warm up to the idea, friend. Sometimes people are turned off to the idea of opera, especially if they have not actually seen one. Call it a musical however and most people will be very enthusiastic. Can a western be staged as an opera or musical? Definitely...Aaron Copeland did it so I say more power to Charles Wuorinen!! It will be difficult to wait until 2012!!

Artiste:
And why not an Brokeback Mountain II ? Too!

Artiste:
Will the opera cut out the sex scene ?

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