The Shining (Opera)

"Jack Torrance thought: Officious little prick."

 - first words of King's The Shining.

"Hi, I've got an appointment with Mr. Ullman. My name is Jack Torrance." 

- first words of Kubrick's The Shining.

"You've got to watch her. She creeps." *

- first words of King's script for The Shining miniseries.

"Did you remember the parking brake?" *

- first words of The Shining, the opera.

* More or less.

This one will be somewhat tough to discuss, as there's no CD, no DVD, and a paucity of YouTube links to the production. A shame - and a bit of a mystery. Why no official recording? Why no film of the performance? Why have no other performances opened anywhere after the initial run? No opera company anywhere in the world wants to put on The Shining? Are the rental fees too high? The run in St. Paul sold out each night. Multiply that by any opera market that knows King's work (a lot) and you'd figure there'd be mutual profit and interest. None of these things add up to me. What is the rationale for keeping this off the market? 

I'll try my best, though. First things first: this is terrific stuff. When it comes to contemporary opera, I know virtually nothing. Through supplemental reading, repeat listening, and strategic use of Robert Greenberg's How To Listen To and Understand Opera, I've learned a bit about opera over the past year, but it's been 99% traditional repertoire stuff. I had not, for example, heard of either the composer (again, Paul Moravec) or the librettist (Mark Campbell).

Above, with director Simonson and conductor Michael Christie.

A few seconds googling revealed oh hey, these guys are not just very well-known but highly accomplished, top-of-their-field personalities. Very much an honor to have these guys bring your work to the stage. It's a bit like King getting adapted by... well, Kubrick, I guess. (Except - as is mentioned in each and every press release I could find on the Shining opera - part of securing the rights to the book included making it clear that it was adapting the novel and not the movie. King's never going to let that one go. Of all the hills to die on, Kubrick's The Shining is King's Dien Bien Phu.)

Anyway, I very much look forward to checking out more of the creators' work. That also goes for the leads: Brian Mulligan as Jack Torrance and Kelly Kaduce as Wendy Torrance. 

Both carry the opera more or less on their shoulders. The real treat of the opera if you're a fan of either the novel (or the film, or even the miniseries... I guess) is seeing these characters brought to life with such intensity from the leads. Opera fits the novel well. The composer and librettist both seize upon this to great effect, which allows the leads to bring the characters - familiar to so many of us - to new life while still being recognizable. 

British critic Michael Eaton listed the three rules of effective adapation as (1) the geography can be jettisoned if the sociological ground base is preserved, (2) it is not the significance of the characters as written but the structural relationships between them that should remain fixed, and (3) thematic coherence is the essential springboard. Quibble with them if you like (myself, I think point two is too slippery-slope-y) but by his or any standard of adaptation, everyone involved here did a remarkable job of it. But special credit to Mark Campbell; I don't think it's overstating it to say of the three attempts to translate the book into another medium (one of them by King himself) he might have done the book the most justice.

(The polar opposite of this sort of understanding is something the Wall Street Journal wrote in its review: "(The opera) elevates the story from a horror to a human drama." Clearly written by someone who has never read the novel.) 

Anyway, Kalduce and Mulligan are both fantastic. The cast is rounded out (among others) by Arthur Woodley as Dick Hallorhan, David Walton as Delbert Grady, and Mark Walters as Mark Torrance. They each get time in the spotlight and knock it out of the park. I wish I could cue up particular moments from their songs, but alas. Grady in particular brings some comic menace to his scenes. And the Don Giovanni-like appearance of Mark Torrance is a highlight of the whole show.

Sorry no screencap, but here's Doc (Alejandro Vega) and Woodley's Hallorhan.

One last word on the adaption before moving on to the music itself: Jack's struggle with learning that it's his son that the Overlook is really after and that he's just being manipulated to maneuver Danny into place is fleshed out better here than in any other place. Perhaps not the novel, but that's to be expected. Of course, the novel didn't have aria, duet, and chorus to work with either. Especially with this score.

If you just listened to the music, you might be forgiven for thinking Danny (and Toby's) presence was too drastically reduced. But on the contrary, Danny is the pivotal on-stage role: it's just that as a child he can't carry the musical score so he has to be used strategically. And he is - to great effect. But visually and stage-wise, as far as how his presence ends or moves scenes along, he is the key piece on the chessboard, just as in the novel.

Okay, so let's get to the music. It was described as "a haunting score by Paul Moravec, sparing in its use of melody in its quest for mounting tension and suspense" by Alan Kopischke for USA Today. And it is certainly that. This is operatic score in the constant-musical-momentum mode, and not quite the Verdi or Wagner mode, with orchestral flourishes that call attention to themselves and/or standalone songs you might be whistling on your way out of the opera house.

After 3 listens - and boy, it'd be nice to crank the CD or blu-ray from their respective delivery mechanisms but hey! - I think my initial impression (this is great music) stands. Is considerably deepened, in fact. Listen to this. You can see some of the production at that link, too. Once you get a sense of the score, listen to this rehearsal with only piano.

The voices blend better with the orchestra, but that's why it's an opera. I pick out a lot more about what the music is doing hearing it only on piano. Very modern sense of harmony (modern as in Stravinsky/Schoenberg) but mainly: just spooky, disorienting music. It's such an interesting way of enveloping the Overlook and this family drama. Lush but sinister, and wonderful - regal when it has to be, a cauldron of tension otherwise. 

I loved every number where the Overlook ghosts appear, and Jack and Wendy have some nice duets. Robert Greenberg has described the opera composer as an architect who gathers his materials based on the direction he's given from the subject matter, not someone who sits down, magically inspired, and develops an opera in a coherent fashion. He chooses his materials - so many arias, a duet here, a chorus there - by what he needs to accomplish. Such is the case here, it seems to me; Moravec and Campbell chose wisely. I'd love to read along with the libretto for a better report, but see above.

The stage and costume design (by Erhard Rom and Karin Kopischke respectively) looked pretty good from the glimpses I've seen.

A few words on the early days of trying to get King to sign off on permission to do the opera: 

"Johnson got to King’s lawyer almost immediately but negotiations stalled until Paul Moravec revealed that he was buddies with Peter Straub. Maybe he could make a call? The call hit paydirt (it didn’t hurt that Straub, unlike King, is an opera buff) and King signed off on the project with a few provisos: (1) Minnesota Opera could make a CD of the The Shining but not a DVD, (2) King maintained approval of the libretto, and (3) The opera had to be based on King’s book, not the Stanley Kubrick film. Done, said Johnson."

Did he show up during its opening and so far only run? Has he ever mentioned it in interviews? I found no answers to these questions.

And fair enough - should King pretend he's an opera fan? It might be as simple as that - he feels uncomfortable commenting on it. Again, fair enough - his permission to do it and relatively mild stipulations to do so is comment enough. I do, though, feel that some of the adaptations he has endorsed and promoted are done with far less panache and affection than this opera, so it's unfortunate, if only out of respect to such a respectful production, that he hasn't. Someone in the King camp should do something about this. If they haven't already - what do I know about what kind of emails and gift baskets and polar bear expeditions to Greenland have or haven't been organized behind the scenes?

And opera houses across the country should put it on! It's absurd something this good - and popular - can sit unused.

James Hughes, Slate - "After this brief run, the company’s hope is that the opera will travel to other cities, other shores. The sets and simulacrums of natural beauty that fit so well in St. Paul will soon be broken down and cataloged, ready to be transferred to the next caretaker. "

Let's hope so. 

~

The Shining was composed by Paul Moravec with libretto by Mark Campbell, as performed by the Minnesota Opera as part of its New Works Initiative, premiering in May 2016. Directed by Eric Simonson.

Soundtracks: Ten Favorites

Does it seem like everyone's taking inventory lately? Ten Books, Ten Movies, Ten What-Have-You everywhere you look. I'd been planning something like this for awhile and it was not meant to reflect this trend. But as for taking inventory: guilty as charged. I like taking inventory.

Another thing I like? (Segue!) Film music. In fact I love it and have as long as I can remember. Lately - it started earlier this year when I was collecting the Bond soundtracks - I've been absorbing them more than usual. Here's ten favorites, just for the hell of it.

Some caveats: (Always with the caveats!)

- I'm not including any soundtrack that I might love (say, Purple Rain, or - for entirely different reasons - Rocky IV or Trainspotting) or that may even be perfectly integrated into the film the way film-score music would be (all the aforementioned, Mean Streets, Stand By Me, etc.) I don't consider them inferior to the strictly orchestral soundtrack, it's just what I've gravitated to lately.

- No Bond, since I did that 007 mix tape post, and no John Carpenter and I limited myself to one John Williams. The truth is: if I entered these composers in competition and truly set out to map out which was best or even which were favorites, I'd probably have a top 10 of nothing but these 3 Johns. Which might be truthfully represent my favorite soundtracks, but it seemed more fun to talk about some of the others below.

No disrespect Favorites are probably Moonraker (or The Black Hole) and Halloween, respectively. (You can't go wrong with any Carpenter - especially the two he put out to films that do not exist.) Favorite Williams, see below.

- Similarly, no Star Trek.Which one is the best? I have no idea. Maybe I'll do a Trek soundtrack post sometime. (Most underrated? Insurrection or The Search for Spock. Probable best: The Motion Picture. Or Wrath of Khan. Or The Voyage Home.) 

- And finally, I'm not including any hybrids of score and songs, like Back to the Future (which remains one of my favorite soundtrack collections of both) or Risky Business (which was painful, as the Tangerine Dream music in there is awesome. While we're here, there is a lack of Tangerine Dream on the list below, too, which is unfair. I'm a huge fan and they did some fantastic film scores over the years. Sorcerer, Legend, Thief, you name it - many more. But the one I want is The Keep. It's available only at ridiculous prices, so as a slightly ridiculous protest about not being able to crank it from my stereo (YouTube just isn't the same) I left them off the below.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Truly there could a hundred here, but I'm going with:

Korngold is a composer I've been studying a little bit. I don't know his work very well, but this Sea Hawk and Other Scores disc goes a good broad-strokes-ing his cinematic approach. I've got his opera Die Tote Stadt (which is pretty good - took me a few listens but now I kind of love it) and his Midsummer suite on the way. You haven't heard the last from Korngold in these pages.

I'm delighted to have added Young Sherlock Holmes to my collection after all these years of singing "Rame Tep" (cued up to the part here that was unbelievably cool when cranked from the stereo instead of heard via mp3 on my computer) to myself. Bruce Broughton, I discovered from the liner notes, lifted some parts of his score for the TV mini-series The First Olympics - which I watched a gazillion times on VHS - for parts of YSH. I'm not sure which yet, but I'm on the case. 

Korngold (l) Broughton (r)

10.

Totally underrated soundtrack. Glover Gill and the Tosca Tango Orchestra provide not just the perfect soundtrack for the abstractions of the film but a standalone masterpiece. I can think of many words to describe the music - turbulent, elegantly structured, wonderful, deeply stirring, disorienting - but just have a listen to the reintroduced main theme at the end of the film. It's better than any of them. (Words, that is.) 

9. 

Danny Elfman's Beetlejuice soundtrack might lack the maturity of some of his masterworks to come, but it's my personal favorite of all of them. The main theme gets a justifiable slice of attention, but most of the other tracks are equally wonderful. Like "Travel Music." Or "The Incantation." I love this album. 

8. 

Broughton again, here conducting the Sinfonia of London in a faithful reproduction of Bernard Hermann's original score. Holy crap do I love this music: the perfectly precise use of the orchestra in "Hydra's Teeth/ Skeletons Attack", the echoes of Hermann scores to come in "Medea's Ship", or this haunting accompaniment to Hercules and Hylas finding the Titans treasure. You could use the same music for an opera based and it'd make a hundred million, easy. Well, adjusted for inflation, and in 1880, or something. Still: beautiful music. And kudos and deep thanks to Broughton and company for doing these recreation soundtracks. 

7.

I remember a friend once saying something like "Koyaanisqatsi is great and all, but when's the last time you actually watched it?" And I thought, "I watch Koyaanisqatsi all the time, dude." And at the time it was true. These days, not so much, but I still listen to the soundtrack often enough. A classic. Throw it on and trance out and think about really deep things.

I've been listening to some of Philip Glass' operas. Like Korngold, he shall return another day. 

6.

The composer/conductor of this one, William Stromberg, is another to whom we should give thanks for recreating film scores of the past. Here he gets to blanket this atomic bomb documentary with his own nuclear array of sound (please forgive me). But holy moley - listen/ watch this. Or this. This isn't a movie or a soundtrack; it's a declassified opera about atomic bomb tests narrated by William goddamn Shatner with some of the heaviest orchestral gloom ever committed to celluloid or digital print.

5.

One of the most influential scores of all time. I was driving through the edge of what I later discovered was a tornado a few months back and this happened to be playing at inadvisable volume. Couldn't see a damn thing and was afraid to move my hands from where they were locked on the wheel to turn down the volume. Top Five Most Intense Driving Moments of My Life. (If they ever make a movie of it, please call it Visibility Zero.) 

Prokofiev had a troubled life. I keep bringing up operas and don't mean to, but I've got one of his on tap as well (The Love for Three Oranges.) Nevsky, though, is more or less the musical model for every movie made in the West set in or about Russia that came after.

4. 

What makes this one so special is how unnecessary it was. This movie would've been fine with just a traditional score, but Basil went ahead and composed this. Very much in the tradition of Nevsky and Soviet military traditionals but with its own blockbuster ethos. Guaranteed to make your day more epic. This is kind of my stand-in for all Poledouris. If push came to shove, I think I'd go with Red October, but Robocop and Conan would be right up there to the last round.

From what I understand, the choir's Russian isn't very clear, so native speakers have to read along with everyone else to understand the words. I've never even looked up the words, and I've listened to this a gazillion times. What am I waiting for? (I don't know if this is accurate or not, but there's this.)

3.

Special edition 2008

Like any reasonable person I've always loved the movie, but it took until the release of the Indiana Jones Soundtrack Collection in 2008 for me to properly appreciate everything John Williams does in this score. As with Poledouris above, this is kind of my stand-in for John Williams, which is ridiculous, but I just mean: between Indy and Star Wars, this is my pick. Limited to those two franchises. Still ridiculous but less so - Williams has done so much he's  genre of one. (Click here for the first of a multi-part wonderful overview of said genre.) I didn't go with Star Wars here not because the Raiders score is any better, really - just "The Raiders March" and "The Map Room" are my all-round, enduring, desert-island favorites.

What more can you say? It is film score perfection.

2.

I'd forgive you for thinking I'm crazy for putting this above Raiders or any of the others you can think of. But what can I say? I love every track on this album, and I listen to it at least once every couple of months, and years back I listened to it damn near everyday. From the opening ("Voluntary Hospital Escape") through the middle ("Snowflake Music/ Mr. Henry's Chop Shop") and on to the end ("Futureman's Theme," which sums it all up) this is music to reprogram your life to. Which is exactly what the movie is about, so film score mission accomplished. And then some. 

Of the album's non-score songs - and technically yes this is a cheat since I made a point of excluding such albums but a) there was no way I was leaving Bottle Rocket off, and b) there's only a couple of them - the one that hits my head in that same frontal-love heaven way is "Zorro's Back". The YouTube links appear to be only the 4-minute version from the Alain Delon film from the 70s or this fan-made stuff at the soundtrack length.

And finally:

1.

Both the movie and the soundtrack are enduring favorites, but Queen's score for Flash Gordon has come to represent some radical (and radically awesome) alternate path for America. Somewhere out there in multispace, the earth spun off into the history we all know, while in some other timeline, Flash Gordon not only made a gazillion dollars, the world remade itself, Bill and Ted's style, in its mix of steampunk Queen-arena-rock awesomeness. 

Beyond this alternate timeline business, it's amazing how seriously Queen its role in scoring the film. It's very much done in the classical score style, with themes for characters and leitmotifs; I'd say between this and Star Wars/ John Williams, there was really no way in retrospect I wasn't going to gravitate towards scores that followed certain rules rather than free-for-alls. But also very much in the exuberant spirit of its era and refashioning the familiar into new, again-totally-awesome directions. 

"Totally awesome" is the only true description of this soundtrack. Beethoven, Duke Ellington, Genghis Khan, and Yngwie Malmsteen all wish they wrote this album. I do, too, for that matter. I'll settle for cranking it every other week. How fortunate to be alive in an era such as this, even if we're in the crap timeline. 

But hey! Maybe not.

~