Organization

Singer

Tenor

Tom Randle

Jack Twist

Bass-baritone

Daniel Okulitch

Ennis

Soprano

Heather Buck

Alma

Mezzo-soprano

Hannah Esther Minutillo

Laureen

Bass

Ethan Herschenfeld

Aguirre

Hogboy

Contralto

Jane Henschel

Mrs. Twist

Ryan MacPherson

John Twist Sr.

Letitia Singleton

Saleswoman

Celia Alcedo

Mrs Beers

Conductor

Titus Engel

Stage director

Ivo van Hove

Costume designer

Wojciech Dziedzic

Set designer

Jan Versweyveld

Teatro Real de Madrid

Brokeback Mountain

Madrid

Spain

Teatro Real

Brokeback Mountain is an opera by American composer Charles Wuorinen, with a libretto in English by Annie Proulx, based on her 1997 short story "Brokeback Mountain". They began work on it in 2008 under a commission by Gerard Mortier of the New York City Opera. He took the project with him to the Teatro Real of Madrid, where the opera was premiered on January 28, 2014.

There are many parallels to be found between this work, which will have it's world première at the Teatro Real, and Tristan und Isolde. Just as in the opera by Richard Wagner, we are presented with a love on a cosmic scale, and one that is rejected by society. It is a love story set in a stunning landscape of mountains, only to be destroyed by society's expectations, just as in Wagner's opera. Annie Proulx, the author of the book of the same name, wrote the libretto so that the music by Charles Wuorinen could transcend the message of the film. Wuorinen himself states that nature in the opera is, "a constantly menacing, deadly force."

A world premiere at the Teatro Real de Madrid: Brokeback Mountain, Charles Wuorinen's new opera, composed after Annie Proulx's novel and Ang Lee's multi Oscar winning movie.

One of the highlights of the 2014 operatic season, Brokeback Mountain is a new opera composed by Charles Wuorinen after the original short story of Annie Proulx. First published in the New Yorker in 1997, then in the collection of Wyoming stories, Close Range, the story of Brokeback Mountain is well-known worldwide thanks to the Academy Award-winning film adaptation made by Ang Lee in 2005, starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.

The American composer Charles Wuorinen, recipient of a Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur grant, came up with the idea of composing an opera after watching the film version of Brokeback Mountain. "I knew there was operatic material at hand," he explained. Gérard Mortier, the director of the Teatro Real Madrid, commissioned this new opera. The libretto was written by Annie Proulx herself.

"Annie Proulx and I, explains Charles Wuorinen, began consultation on the work in 2008 with a week spent at the excellent Ucross Foundation (an artists' retreat) near Sheridan, Wyoming. There I had the chance to go into the mountains that provided the model for Brokeback, and to hold several conversations with Annie Proulx. The result of this and many subsequent exchanges was a splendidly concise and apposite libretto, in which Proulx, through her characteristically laconic style, conveys character and scene with great efficiency. An essential property of any libretto which aspires to project drama is this kind of efficiency, since sung language greatly slows the delivery of words. I consider myself very lucky to have been given such an excellent exemplar."

Following Haroun and the Sea of Stories premiered in 2004 at New York City Opera, Brokeback Mountain is Wuorinen's second opera. The cast stars Daniel Okulitch and Tom Randle in the roles of Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, the two characters struggling with their social environment. Ivo van Hove, general director of the Toneelgroep in Amsterdam, is the stage director of this world premiere. The Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Real are conducted by Titus Engel, who made his debut in Madrid last season.

A modern opera adaptation by Charles Wuorinen based on Annie Proulx’s short story previously adapted by Ang Lee for the Oscar-winning film Brokeback Mountain. This marks Wuorinen’s return to the opera stage with one of the major works of his career, equally ambitious in its beauty and momentous tragedy. Brokeback is the story of ranch hand Ennis del Mar and rodeo cowboy Jack Twist, two young men who meet and fall in love on the fictional Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming in 1963. Wuorinen says “It’s a story of doomed love, in this case a complex homosexual relationship taking place in a very homophobic society.”

Brokeback Mountain Wuorinen

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