An Exclusive from INSIDE magazine
Opera Tampa turns 30 this year and it’s definitely making the most of it. Its expanded season features four works instead of the usual three.
Plus, there was a preseason production of Tom Sivak’s very darkly humorous Love v. Death, a two-part chamber opera about, well, love and death. Part One of this piece takes place in Florida and is based on the true story of a hospital worker whose love for a young woman didn’t die even though she did. Part Two is about Typhoid Mary. We said “very darkly humorous.”
An eerie ghost story, Turn of the Screw was performed in late November.
Opera Tampa’s 30th anniversary season continues with a comedy (The Magic Flute), tragedy (Macbeth) and one title that will be familiar, possibly surprising, to many, opera fans or not: The Shining.
Yes. That Shining. The novel by Stephen King. Not that other Shining, the film by director Stanley Kubrick. Unlike Kubrick’s work, the opera sticks with King’s story, for a very solid reason:
“The book is operatic. The movie isn’t,” said Mark Campbell, librettist for The Shining. Campbell said he loved Kubrick’s film, but “the whole point of the movie is the coldness and the austerity of it.”
Much to King’s chagrin, Kubrick made major thematic changes from the book which, for one thing, drained lead character Jack Torrance of any sympathetic qualities.
The Jack Torrance King described was indeed flawed: an alcoholic in recovery (at first) with anger issues (resulting in his son’s broken arm), he’s also a writer with writer’s block. He’s also sincerely working to be a better person. But he’s a victim of an abusive father as well as the hotel’s evil.
“I think of Jack Torrance as a decent guy trying to do the right thing,” said Shining composer Paul Moravec. “And he’s caught up in a terrible dilemma because he has two sets of instructions to follow. One is to protect his family and the other is to kill them. What could be more dramatic than that?”
In the book, Jack fights off encroaching insanity and we see his slow decline. In the movie, Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance wants to know what’s taking insanity so long.
“He’s crazy in the Volkswagen driving up,” Campbell says, laughing. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, he’s going to murder his family.’ You just have to look at Jack Nicholson’s eyebrows to know that there’s a killer within.
“We created a story about a father who is really trying to do good, but loses the battle against insanity and probably made a bad career choice by going to a remote place in Colorado,” Campbell said.
Adapting King’s novel for opera required the writers “to get into the heart of the story, to get into the heart of the characters, and there is a lot of heart,” Moravec said. “It is a book about love. There’s a lot of warmth in the book.”
Minnesota Opera paired Campbell and Moravec for The Shining. It was either their first time working together, according to Moravec, or the second, according to Campbell, who said they previously had written a song for an opera center’s opening.
Either way, the two worked well together and have, since The Shining, collaborated on three oratorios, all of which are being turned into operas.
The pair have a few things in common, one being Pulitzer Prizes. Moravec received the prize in 2004 for his piece Tempest Fantasy, while Campbell won in 2012 for his opera Silent Night.
They both seem pleased to have given King’s book an accurate representation in a different discipline.
No spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen the opera or read the book, but the ending is very different from the movie.
“The ending of the movie was very showy and psychologically frightening,” Campbell said, “but the book gives you a sense of redemption.”
The Shining will be performed Jan. 30 and Feb. 1. Opera Tampa’s season continues with Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Feb. 27 and March 1, and Verdi’s Macbeth, April 24 and 26. All performances take place in Ferguson Hall. To purchase tickets or for more information, call 813.229.7827 or visit strazcenter.org.