Brokeback Mountain Opera Coming to New York

Brokeback Mountain is coming back to New York, this time in the form of an opera.

The New York City Opera has commissioned American composer and New York native Charles Wuorinen to adapt the E. Annie Proulx short story and subsequent Oscar-winning film for its 2013 spring season. It will be Mr. Wuorinen’s second world premiere at City Opera, his first being an adaptation in 2004 of Salman Rushdie’s Sea of Stoires.

“Ever since encountering Annie Proulx's extraordinary story I have wanted to make an opera on it,” said the 70-year-old Mr. Wuorinen in a statement the Opera sent out over the weekend.

The City Opera, whose home in the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center is currently undergoing renovations, recently announced it will tour the five boroughs during its 2008-2009 run. Belgian-born opera director Gerard Mortier will take the helm as general manager the following season. Meanwhile, Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee is at work on a new comedy about the original Woodstock music festival based on Elliot Tiber's 2007 memoir, Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life.