Deseret News – Here’s what’s keeping opera alive in 2020

by Lottie Elizabeth Johnson

SALT LAKE CITY — Three years after Stephen King wrote “The Shining,” Stanley Kubrick’s film hit theaters and introduced a new level of terror, largely thanks to an ax-wielding Jack Nicholson.

Three years ago, the horror story about the Torrance family entered a surprising venue: the opera house.

Yes, “The Shining” is an opera.

And its premiere run in St. Paul, Minnesota, was sold out for weeks.

A year later, an opera about Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs debuted in Santa Fe. Tickets were in such high demand that the opera company ended up adding on a performance. In 2019, “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs” won a Grammy Award for best opera recording.

“That means that new people — people who have never even thought of opera as an art form before — they’re coming to see opera now,” librettist Mark Campbell told the Deseret News. “It’s a very, very exciting time for contemporary opera.”

Read on at deseret.com