Master of horror Stephen King has captivated audiences through books, movies, television, and as of 2016, one of his most famous works, The Shining, has been adapted into an opera.
The works of Stephen King have transcended most authors' reach, as he has extended into virtually every medium in some capacity. Truly, King has enriched the horror genre and has given it mainstream appeal while simultaneously providing genre fans with new, terrifying content since the 1970s. With 61 novels in print and roughly 200 short stories, many of which have been printed in different collections, King has dominated the literary world of horror, and his star seems to be continually on the rise. In 2020, he has enjoyed success with a new collection of short stories, If It Bleeds, and one of his newer works, The Outsider, was adapted into a television series for HBO.
While there are many different King adaptations in the works that haven't been released, The Shining is still one of the most well-known, oft-referenced examples of King's work. The Shining is not the most adapted Stephen King story, but it has seen multiple versions, including Kubrick's 1980 movie and a television adaptation done by King himself, which was not as critically acclaimed. In 2016, Paul Moravec brought it to life as an opera through the "New Works Initiative" of the Minnesota Opera.
The Shining Opera Explained (& Where To Listen)
Stephen King is notoriously not fond of Kubrick's film adaptation of The Shining, but the 2016 opera, from Paul Moravec, combines elements from both King's novel and Kubrick's film, though Moravec and his librettist, Mark Campbell, sought to invoke King's novel at the forefront, drawing more from it than the movie. The opera was a hit with audiences, and its run had completely sold out even before it debuted in May 2016. It may seem strange to turn The Shining into an opera, but the story's dramatic elements and grandiose setting of an opulent hotel make sense and even fit the bill, providing a unique experience for opera aficionados and horror fans alike.
King is also not a newcomer to the musical world. While not an opera or an adaptation of one of his existing stories, the prolific author worked with John Mellencamp on a musical, which was developed from an original story and formatted just for the stage. Horror and musicals surprisingly go hand in hand, and the story of Jack Torrance and his family getting trapped at The Overlook Hotel brought big drama to an unexpected medium. The combination of opera's intensity and the rousing score invokes Stephen King and the intensity of The Shining in an inspired way that shows the range of the horror genre and gives ample reason for creators to think outside the box with what's possible for a good scary story. The soundtrack to the opera can be found on Soundcloud via the Minnesota Opera page.