Stephen King’s The Shining Adapted Into An Opera

‘The Shining,’ Stephen King’s best-selling novel which inspired Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 movie, has found a new lease of life - as a stage opera.

The Minnesota Opera premiered their take on the horror classic last week, with composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell having spent the last three years working on the project.

Moravec tells NPR, “Stephen King’s original novel is all about love, death and power. And those are the three foundational components for an opera.”

The composer certainly seems to have a suitably epic, even Biblical take on King’s tale of a haunted hotel which sends its new caretaker Jack Torrance out of his mind.

“I think of the Overlook as sort of this gateway into hell. And 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.”

First published in 1977, ‘The Shining’ was King’s third novel and remains one of his most acclaimed works.

However, Kubrick’s adaptation with Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall has long been divisive. A flop on release, it was later re-embraced by audiences and critics, but fans of the novel (and King himself) have long been unhappy about how much of the novel is left out.

The opera retains some key plot elements which Kubrick jettisoned, as baritone Brian Mulligan (who portrays central character Jack Torrance) explains:

“He’s a survivor of extreme domestic abuse. He’s kind of struggling to end that cycle of abuse with his own family — and failing miserably.”

While no national or international tour of ‘The Shining’ is on the cards yet, it would seem the plan is very much for the show to have widespread appeal beyond traditional opera fans.

Campbell says, “If we get more people into the opera house because of the familiarity, and expose them to new and exciting and challenging music, we all win by that.“

This is not the first time King’s work has been adapted for the stage. A musical of ‘Carrie,’ despite flopping miserably on its 1988 Broadway premiere, has enjoyed several revivals in recent years.

A stageplay of King’s ‘Misery’ has also been performed on Broadway, starring Bruce Willis and Laurie Metcalf.

Picture Credit: Warner Bros, Ken Howard/Minnesota Opera

Read More:
Cannes comedian draws gasps with Woody Allen ‘rape joke’
Spud spotted on Trainspotting 2 set
X-Men: Apocalypse is getting slated