Brokeback Tristan

Charles Wuorinen's operatic adaptation of Brokeback Mountain opens tonight at the Teatro Real Madrid. The libretto is by Annie Proulx, who wrote the short story, perhaps one of the finest ever accounts of single-sex attraction. It has already been adapted, of course, into a superb, pitch-perfect film by Ang Lee, which was robbed of its Best Picture Oscar. The opera, however, has already set its sights high on the slopes of Brokeback, if the marketing material is to be believed.

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.  

Contrary to the modest and muted tone of Proulx's original, this is hubristic stuff, the like of which probably only Wagner could have dreamed up. I can only hope that, given Proulx is involved, the opera won't live down to its own ill-conceived hype. Click here for more information.

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