Minnesota Opera to Premiere THE SHINING Opera, 5/7

By: Apr. 26, 2016
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On May 7th, the highly anticipated world premiere of The Shining - a new opera based on Stephen King's 1977 best-selling novel - by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell, will be presented by the Minnesota Opera, at the Music Theater at the Ordway in St. Paul, Minnesota. With less than three weeks to go before the curtain rises, all 7,056 seats across The Shining's four performances are sold out and only standing room tickets remain for the production which runs through May 15th.

The Shining is the iconic, supernatural horror story that firmly established Stephen King as the genre's definitive voice. The novel, like the opera, is a gripping thriller about the struggles of Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy and their son Danny, to survive the isolation of the Overlook Hotel in Colorado where Jack has been engaged as winter caretaker. The family endeavors to remain together in spite of their growing isolation from the world, the hotel's paranormal activity and Jack's abusive nature, alcoholism and growing madness.

Hailed by The New York Times for "a voice that is rich, secure, and really, really big", American baritone Brian Mulligan returns to the Minnesota Opera to create theiconic role of Jack Torrance. With The Shining as its pièce de résistance, 2015-16 has been a landmark season for Mulligan, during which he will have debuted ten new rolls in a span of 16 months, thus vaulting the baritone's career to new heights. Earlier this month at the Metropolitan Opera, he played his first Paolo in Verdi's Simone Boccanegra with Plácido Domingo in the title role and James Levine conducting. Last fall, Mulligan returned to San Francisco Opera in the title role in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, followed by Enrico in a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor and Roderick Usher in the highly-anticipated double bill of Gordon Getty's Usher House and Debussy's La Chute de la Maison Usher. After major engagements in Vienna and Zurich, Mulligan concludes the season with a debut at the Glimmerglass Festival as the venerable patriarch John Proctor in a new production of Robert Ward's Pulitzer Prize-winning operatic adaptation of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Brian's appearance in The Shining is his first return to the Minnesota Opera since delivering a riveting performance of Hamlet with the company in 2013. Complete Calendar.

The Shining
"It's tremendously exciting that Stephen King granted us permission to adapt The Shininginto an opera," said Minnesota Opera's Artistic Director Dale Johnson. "Opera has the unique ability to amplify a story's emotions. By putting one of the most powerfully imagined stories of our time into the hands of Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell, we've created an intensely thrilling horror opera. I couldn't be more eager to share it with our audience." Composer Paul Moravec considers The Shining a perfect fit for the operatic art form. "Opera for me is about three things: love, death and power. This story has all of those elements on steroids. For all of its sophistication, opera is simple, primordial. It speaks to us so deeply because it deals with who we are on the most fundamental level. That's certainly what Stephen King does in The Shining. His story explores timeless, universal human issues in a high-voltage way, and that's operatic."

Mr. Moravec, recipient of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music, is a prolific composer for the orchestral, chamber, choral, lyric, film and operatic genres. Moravec's first opera, The Letter - commissioned by The Santa Fe Opera with a libretto by Terry Teachout - premiered in the 2009 season, and its score was praised in Opera News as "richly orchestrated ... it amplifies emotions, emphasizes confrontation and crisis and drives the action forward. But it also creates a dramatic world in which singing seems to be the only appropriate medium." The Shining is Moravec's fourth opera.

The Shining represents librettist Mark Campbell's fourth premiere with Minnesota Opera, following the successes of Silent Night (2011), The Manchurian Candidate (2015) and Memory Boy (2016). "Minnesota Opera and the New Works Initiative feel like home to me and I am thrilled to be collaborating again with Stage Director Eric Simonson and Music Director Michael Christie," said Campbell. "The story Stephen King has created in the novel is ideally suited for operatic treatment and Paul's profoundly brilliant music - along with the electrifying production Minnesota Opera will deliver - is going to make for an undoubtedly exciting night of theater."

Mark is one of the most in-demand librettists in the country, having written over 15 operas, including Silent Night (which received the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music), Later the Same Evening, Volpone, Bastianello/Lucrezia and As One. In 2017, Mark will premiere four new operas: Dinner at Eight for Minnesota Opera, Some Light Emerges for Houston Grand Opera, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs for The Santa Fe Opera and Elizabeth Cree for Opera Philadelphia.

Recognized as "a top-notch conductor of new works" by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, The Shining will be conducted by Minnesota Opera Music Director Michael Christie.

The world premiere of The Shining kicks off the second phase of Minnesota Opera's New Works Initiative, which includes the world premiere of Dinner at Eight by composer William Bolcom and librettist Mark Campbell, the Midwest premiere of Cold Mountain by composer Jennifer Higdon and librettist Gene Scheer and the world premiere of The Black Sox Scandal by composer Joel Puckett and librettist Eric Simonson. A pioneering movement in new opera when it was launched in 2008, Minnesota Opera's New Works Initiative continues to invigorate the operatic art form with an infusion of contemporary works, while fulfilling the company's commitment to artistic growth, leadership and innovation.

To learn more about The Shining, please visit mnopera.org/the-shining. There you will find a full synopsis, artist biographies, background notes, audio clips, set and costume renderings, ticketing services and other company information.

About Minnesota Opera
Founded in 1963, Minnesota Opera has paved a bold, illustrious path. As an artistic pioneer, its dedication to excellence and inventive vision make it a steadfast leader in the opera community and beyond. Each year the company reaches nearly 400,000 people through its mainstage productions, groundbreaking education and training programs, community engagement, radio broadcasts and digital content. Heralded for its commitment to develop original works, the company has commissioned and produced more than 40 new operas that have been seen throughout the world. One of the nation's largest and most distinguished opera companies, Minnesota Opera is consistently recognized for its innovation and world-class artistry, delighting audiences young and old for more than 50 years. Together with the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and The Schubert Club, Minnesota Opera is a member of the Arts Partnership and performs on the stage of the Ordway. Mnopera.org.



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