We've always been baffled at Stephen King's notorious, public hatred of Stanley Kubric's 1980 cinematic adaption of his 1977 thriller, The Shining. After all, the spooky masterpiece full of Nicholson dramz, blood rivers and Diane Arbusesque twins has inspired dissertations and theses from its vast cult of fan-boys, rightfully so.
So we can only imagine King's reaction to The Minnesota Opera's news of its latest opera commission, which bows The Shining for a May 2016 world premiere at Ordway in Saint Paul, Minnesota with composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell on score & quill.
It's the second time that Stephen King's novels have been Beaumarchais'd, as the San Francisco Opera readies the curtain of an auto-commissioned Tobias Picker/J.D. McClatchy world premiere Dolores Claiborne on September 18 with Patricia Racette in the title role.
We're psyched for this new project but we beg Moravec to hang the Bartók mantle heavily on his shoulders -- Bartók's iconic Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste that Kubric wove behind the film's most chilling moments (our favorites, above and below) converged the film's most eerie flights of psychological-thriller fancy.