Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’ Is Now An Opera
Stephen King’s The Shining is, without a doubt, an absolute classic. Both the novel and film adaptations have the capacity to absolutely scare and terrify audiences (Well, maybe not the Steven Weber mini-series version but, you know what we mean). Now, audiences will be able to experience the horrifying story live, on stage, and with music!
Last week, The Minnesota Opera premiered The Shining Opera and, they have set out to make the stage production even more terrifying than the book and the films, NPR reported.
The Opera comes from a collaboration of Composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell and took three years to be completed. Paul Moravec was immediately intrigued by the idea of an operatic adaptation telling NPR, “Stephen King’s original novel is all about love, death and power and those are the three foundational components for an opera.”
The Minnesota Opera artistic director Dale Johnson says the entire run has been sold out for weeks and discussed some of the challenges that come along with putting a new spin on such an iconic story, “It’s just part of our popular culture so, we have to make sure that the pace of the opera, and the telling of the opera, doesn’t sit too long in one place —because the audience is already ahead of you.”
The Shining follows a Jack Torrance, his wife, Wendy and son, Danny, as they move into the Overlook Hotel for the winter to act as caretakers for the property but, little do they know, there is something about the hotel that begins to haunt them, particularly putting Jack in a doward spiral of insanity.
Moravec discusses the moment in the Opera when all hell breaks loose, “I think of the Overlook as sort of this gateway into hell. When you finally see the ghosts appearing at the end of Act One, it’s as though the gates of hell open up and they come spilling out onto the stage.”
The Minnesota Opera has not yet announced if this production will be touring but, we hope it will! This definitely sounds like an interesting spin on this terrifying tale!
A karaoke obsessed, craft beer enthusiast and lover of all things pop culture, Denise enjoys all facets of entertainment from Broadway to box office blockbusters. In her spare time, she enjoys photography, concerts (lots and lots of concerts), volunteering, reading and playing with her rescue kitten, Samantha (who rescued who, right?).
