Brokeback Mountain opera to premiere at Teatro Real in Madrid

A Brokeback Mountain opera version is to premiere at the Teatro Real in Madrid later this month.

The libretto has been written by the book’s author, Annie Proulx, with music by composer Charles Wuorinen.

The story revolves around two cowboys, both of whom are married, who start an affair when they meet in 1963.

It was made into an Oscar-winning film by Ang Lee in 2005, starring the late Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Annie Proulx’s original short story first appeared in the New Yorker.

The two-act opera will run from January 28 until February 11 and will star Canadian bass baritone Daniel Okulitch and American tenor Tom Randle.

The project marks a revival of an original commission made by the New York Opera in 2008, when Gerard Mortier was its general director.

Two years later, Gerard Mortier moved to Spain to take up the post of general director of the Teatro Real in Madrid and brought the project with him.

Charles Wuorinen’s previous work includes Haroun and the Sea of Stories, an adaptation of a Salman Rushdie novel, which opened in 2004 in New York.