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The Shining

Minnesota Opera

2016

[ 59 Provided ] -

Moving wallpaper and surreal projected shadow

Stephen King’s best-selling novel comes to life in this suspenseful new opera by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell. As the Torrance family settles in at the infamous Overlook Hotel, Jack comes face to face with his own demons – real and imagined. Will he be able to protect his wife and son from the evil forces within the hotel? This dramatic thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat with a dynamic musical score befitting King’s page-turner. Brian Mulligan, who delivered a riveting performance as Hamlet, returns to the Minnesota Opera stage as Jack Torrance.

59 created bespoke animations and projected images to bring the Overlook Hotel to life – from an animated journey through the Colorado mountains through to the hotel’s ultimate violent destruction at the hands of Jack Torrance. Through moving wallpaper and surreal projected shadow effects, the projected imagery works together with Set Designer Erhard Rom’s moving wagons and sliding panels and Lighting Designer Robert Wierzel’s eerie lighting to create an environment that leaves audiences on the edge of their seats.

Opened May 2016

Minnesota Opera + Ordway Music Theater

[ 59 Provided ] -

Thanks to the inspired intersection of Erhard Rom’s stately set and the swirling, spooky projections of 59 Productions, Minnesota Opera is premiering the scariest opera you may ever experience. From Paul Moravec’s score full of discomfiting themes that clash and collide to strongly sung and disarmingly believable portrayals of characters alive and otherwise, “The Shining” is an unqualified success, ranking alongside 2011’s “Silent Night” as the best works to have been launched by Minnesota Opera’s New Works Initiative
On the whole, The Shining delivered a whole slew of edge-of-your-seat moments: watching Vega’s Danny step slowly toward the bathtub with the drawn curtain in the forbidden room 217 was as riveting as anything I’ve ever seen in a theater.
All in all, this initial performance came off extremely well and deserved the enthusiastic response it received from the audience. The Minnesota Opera has created a version of King’s novel that not only is haunting in its treatment and performance but surprisingly humane and poignant in its appeal. This is one adaptation of a popular work worth seeing by opera buffs or by anyone who has a shine for gripping stories embellished by beautiful music.

Credits

Composer
Paul Moravec

Librettist
Mark Campbell

Novelist
Stephen King

Conductor
Michael Christie

Stage Director
Eric Simonson

Choreographer
Heidi Spesard-Noble

Scenery and Properties Design
Erhard Rom

Animation and Projection Design
59 Productions

Costume Design
Kärin Kopischke

Lighting Design
Robert Wierzel

Sound Design
Andrew Mayer

59 Team

Creative Director
Benjamin Pearcy

Animation
Lawrence Watson

Creative Associate
Akhila Krishnan

Assistant Designers
Amber McDonald
Gareth Martin