With his 1977 book, “The Shining,” Stephen King secured his reputation as a writer in the horror genre and three years later enjoyed the story’s cinematic vision through the lens of director Stanley Kubrick. But another adaptation awaited, and in 2016 composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell presented a theatrical version as part of the Minnesota Opera’s New Works Initiative.
Now, Opera Tampa raises the curtain on this modern spine-tingler, hoping audiences who have read the book will enjoy its transformation on stage. Performances are Jan. 30 and Feb. 1 at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa.
“The music is not your typical 18th or 19th century opera jam, and while it’s a bit strange, it also has beautiful melodies,’’ said Melissa Misener, the company’s artistic administrator and resident stage director. “It’s certainly a stretch for Opera Tampa, as we’ve traditionally stuck with the tried-and-true warhorses. But it will appeal to new audiences because the title and the story are familiar.’’
As most of you know, “The Shining” concerns the Torrance family — Jack, Wendy and their son Danny — who vacation at the remote Overlook Hotel in snowy Colorado, where Jack can work on his play. But things don’t go exactly as planned. For inexplicable reasons, Jack suffers a bout of writer’s block and descends into homicidal madness. Danny, who possesses a supernatural awareness recognized by the hotel’s cook, Dick Hallorann, realizes the family’s presence has unearthed something sinister from the past.
Although the book and opera are fictional, they align with King’s experience in 1974 at the 140-room Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, and the underlying theme of psychosis stems from the author’s battle with alcoholism and drug addiction. King’s family, distraught by his worsening condition, intervened after he wrote “The Shining.”
The gritty realism of the book inspired Moravec — winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music for the Tempest Fantasy — to keep his opera convincing, and to fuel the action through a musical trajectory. Within this, the characters carry their own signature leitmotivs as the score evolves psychologically.
“When creating the music for a character in an opera, I first try to inhabit the particular mind and central nervous system, to try to think and feel what the character is experiencing in the drama,’’ Moravec said. “Very often, the character’s peculiar musical profile, their ‘sound,’ will emerge from that process. I usually compose at the piano, singing the character’s part, allowing him or her to ‘sing’ through me.’’
The most challenging character to represent musically was Jack, as the process required Moravec to descend into a perceived madness along with him. The music moves from tonal to atonal, from comfortable to chaotic, and “as Jack’s mental state disintegrates, so does the musical language.’’
After so much agitation, Moravec returns to the Hallorann character, who in the opera’s final aria restores the harmonic balance. All this was not easy. Moravec and Campbell worked on the opera for three years and adhered to the spirit of the book, eschewing the liberties of Kubrick’s film.
In the opera, Jack is stoic, thoughtful and driven by a code of ethics (before he tries to murder his family). In a poignant scene in Act II, Jack decides to let his family live, and breaks the cane his father used to beat Jack’s mother. Wendy, in contrast to her movie character, is strong and a model of maternal love.
“It’s actually very operatic because it’s about the three things that, in my view, drive opera: love, death, and power,’’ Moravec said. “It has all three of those elements on steroids. For all of the drama, the action, the horror, the ghosts, the Overlook Hotel, and all these wonderful aspects of the novel, it’s really a very moving story about a family trying to stay together under extraordinary circumstances.”
“The most rewarding aspect of composing this work,’’ he added, “is that this is also a deeply moving story of love and redemption — something that lends itself well to operatic treatment.’’
The cast includes Robert Westley Mason as Jack; Susan Hellman-Spatafora as Wendy; Ellie Siegler as Danny; and Aubrey Allicock as Hallorann. Rolando Salazar conducts members of The Florida Orchestra.
Kurt Loft is a journalist and music critic who has written for various newspapers, magazines and arts groups for more than 40 years. A member of the Music Critics Association of North America, he lives in St. Petersburg.