City Opera Vancouver secures rights to Brokeback Mountain chamber opera world premiere

Show me a good love story and I’ll show you a good opera—which is why this news comes as a particular thrill: City Opera Vancouver has secured the rights to the chamber music version of Brokeback Mountain, the opera.

Composer Charles Wuorinen has signed a Letter of Intent with COV, agreeing that he will create a chamber version of the work he’s currently developing, with a libretto by the original Brokeback Mountain author, Annie Proulx.

The large-scale version of the work is due to premiere at Teatro Real in Madrid around January 2014, and COV is to produce the chamber version premiere one year later.

COV artistic director Charles Barber tells me he’s jokingly nicknamed the Madrid version “El Grande” and the chamber version we’ll see here as “El Poco”.

Now just imagine the words “I wish I knew how to quit you” sung by a golden tenor voice.

Comments

3 Comments

Charles Barber

Apr 21, 2011 at 5:35pm

Good guess! Jack will be a tenor, and Ennis a bass-baritone.

If we may say so, this is a wonderful coup for theatre, and for Vancouver. Thx, Jessica, for your interest. www.cityoperavancouver.com

BayCityJohn

Apr 21, 2011 at 7:39pm

I missed the Olympics in Vancouver, but no way am I missing this!

Just Curious

Apr 24, 2011 at 2:44pm

If it is by Charles Wuorinen, does that mean it'll be a 12-tone opera?