opera Tagged Articles at Cinematical
'Brokeback Mountain' To Be an Opera
Filed under: Drama », Remakes and Sequels »
Turning movies into Broadway musicals may still be a hot trend (the latest to hit the stage to mixed reviews is Saved!), but the idea of turning movies into operas is gaining heat. Just two weeks ago, we heard about an operatic adaptation of the global-warming doc An Inconvenient Truth. And today The New York Times reports that the New York City Opera has commissioned Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Charles Wuorinen to create an opera version of Brokeback Mountain. Of course, the production won't necessarily have anything to do with Ang Lee's Oscar-winning 2005 film. The Times notes the commission is for an opera based on Annie Proulx's original short story. So, we may not get to see Jack Twist sing the line "I wish I knew how to quit you." But the plot of the story is pretty much the same as the movie, and therefore fans of the latter will likely find the opera just as appealing. Such a melodramatic tale, about the romantic relationship between two young married men, should feel right and appropriate for the highly emotional medium. It may seem a bit silly to imagine an opera featuring costumes consisting of plaid button-downs and cowboy hats, though. What do you think? Are you interested in seeing Brokeback Mountain: The Opera? And are there any other movies you'd like to see get the opera treatment?
The New York City Opera plans to premiere Brokeback Mountain in 2013.
[via Vulture blog]
'An Inconvenient Truth' Gets the Operatic Treatment
Filed under: Documentary », Music & Musicals », Casting », Deals », New Releases », RumorMonger », Celebrities and Controversy », Politics »
Just when it seemed like Al Gore couldn't reassert his international stature any further comes word that An Inconvenient Truth is getting turned into an opera. Seriously. Currently in planning stages for the 2011 season at Italy's Milan opera house, the new work will undoubtedly carry the same tone of global peril that the erstwhile vice president enforces in the film, although one imagines they'll probably do away with some of the dry Power Point material. It's not the most practical choice for an adaptation, that's for sure: The way it's assembled in the film, Gore's lecture manages to engage a diverse audience, while the guy comes off as assertive and witty, which makes you wonder what sort of president he would have made -- but that singular charm doesn't necessarily translate into the sort of theatrics demanded by a massive stage spectacle. It's too early to get any sense for the final product, but for now, the conceit sounds like ridiculous fodder for a Saturday Night Live sketch, and it's hard to envision anything but a parody of the source (consider the infamous case of Jerry Springer: The Opera). Personally, I can see the revamped An Inconvenient Truth taking a cue from Wagner's Ring Cycle and setting the stage ablaze around the main character in a horrific look-what-might-happen finale as a team of green-friendly celebrities chant "Give us Gore" from stage left, their pathetic words drowned out by a deafening orchestral surge ... but maybe that's pushing it.
David Cronenberg Working on Opera Version of 'The Fly'
Filed under: Horror », Music & Musicals », Remakes and Sequels »
Howard Shore has composed the music for about a dozen of David Cronenberg's films, including Scanners, Dead Ringers and A History of Violence. But my favorite collaboration between these guys came in 1986's drop-dead heart-stoppingly brilliant The Fly. So successful was this partnership that the old friends recently announced that, along with Placido Domingo, they'll be turning their version of George Langelaan's The Fly into an opera. Not just a musical, mind you, but a full-bore (three character) opera piece! What a strange and intriguing idea.According to The CBC, the trio will have their Fly opera open in Paris on July 1, 2008 before moving over to Los Angeles some time in September. The production will consist of a chorus, a 75-piece orchestra and three characters: a baritone, a tenor and a mezzo-soprano. As a diehard fan of the flick, I'm guessing the ill-fated Seth Brundle is the baritone, his lady love the soprano and the horribly awful Stathis Barnes as the tenor. Too bad I won't be anywhere near Paris next July or Los Angeles next September.
News from Slackerwood: Opera, Docs, and Outdoor Rock
Filed under: Documentary », News From Slackerwood »
Along with the usual first-run feature film fare, Austin theaters are showing two documentaries as part of their daily lineup. Cowboy del Amor (shown above), which won documentary and audience awards at SXSW in 2005, will screen all week at the Dobie as part of the ongoing AFS@Dobie collaboration. And the documentary Metal: A Headbangers Journey is screening nightly all week at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar.
- Free coffeehouse movies: Austin Java is showing Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie tonight (3/24) at 8 pm. Ventana del Soul will show the 1986 version of The Fly on Monday 3/27 at 7:30 pm.
- Austin
Lyric Opera is celebrating film on Saturday 3/25 with an evening of opera-related film clips (from movies like
Moonstruck and A Room with a View) and live music from White Ghost Shivers. Sounds like fun ... but
at opera-ticket prices, not movie-ticket prices, unfortunately.
Wait - we *don't* want J. Lo to die?
Filed under: Drama », Music & Musicals », RumorMonger », Celebrities and Controversy », Newsstand », Remakes and Sequels »
Every studio in Hollywood has
apparently refused to finance Ray director Taylor Hackford's latest pet project, a feature based on Georges
Bizet's classic opera Carmen, starring Jennifer Lopez. Bizet's opera is a dark, tragic tale of a gypsy whose
daliances with a soldier and a bullfighter bring down both men, and bring their respective political struggles to a
head. Hackford says the suits are afraid of putting Lopez, whose fan base is largely comprised of teenage girls, into a
serious, potentially R-rated project in which the heroine is eventually killed. "There is a great deal of fear in
Hollywood," Hackford tells the NY Daily News, based on the fact that "many of the films are not
working," with moviegoers. "We want to do a tough, hard version, but Hollywood thinks [Lopez'] audience is
13-year-old girls." The suits couldn't really be trying to get Hackford to make his project adolescent-friendly – and if they are, it's only because they've never seen that MTV version of Carmen, starring Beyonce and subtitled, "A Hip-Hopera". The 12-21 year old audience has, I think, been served an adequete helping of Bizet. It makes perfect sense that no one would back a serious, expensive, drama (and it's not even clear whether or not Hackford plans to make it a musical) starring Jennifer Lopez, who has proven bankable only in romantic comedies and as an actress, has by most accounts never lived up to promise she showed in Out of Sight. The real question is: why doesn't Hackford just go get himself another ingenue? Last I heard, there were one or two other Latina actresses in the world...
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