An Unsatisfactory Situation: Brokeback Mountain the Opera

In March, 2006 I became a member of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum, a fan site dedicated to serious discussion of the film and short story "Brokeback Mountain"

Over the years I've made many new friends there, and not just online. We've had many events and gatherings where members would travel from all over the world to meet in person.


We had so many eloquent and moving personal stories told on the forum that we decided to turn them into a book, "Beyond Brokeback: The Impact of a Film." which has also been turned into a staged reading by Gregory Hinton, and performed all over the country in the past few years as part of his "Out West" series, and a ballet produced by Man Dance Company of San Francisco. We are not obsessed, we are passionate.

When it was announced in September, 2007 that Brokeback Mountain was to be turned into an opera I was very excited. Four years later I heard that a date and location had finally been set: January, 2014 in Madrid. We've been making plans to be there for almost 3 years.

The big day finally arrived last Saturday and left me with mixed feelings.

My mother taught me not to speak ill of the dead, so I have very little to say about the lifeless score.

In the weeks leading up to the opera the composer, Charles Wuorinen and librettist Annie Proulx tried very hard to make it clear that this was not a musical recreation of the film. That was to be expected and something I think most of us looked forward to. We wanted to see something new and different.  What I didn't expect was that they would disparage the film in an attempt to make the opera seem better than the film. Annie Proulx said the film "Was what it was", a far cry from her earlier praise of the Oscar winning screenplay by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry.

The creators of the film, especially Diana Ossana, poured a lot of energy and passion into getting the film made. Their efforts paid off in the cultural phenomenon that made the opera possible. So it was upsetting to hear the creators of the opera dismiss the film as lacking. At least the performers in the opera showed that they were passionate about telling the story.

The opera was also marketed as being less sentimental than the film. I didn't see that in Madrid.

Daniel Okulitch did a superb job portraying Ennis Del Mar, and Tom Randle was equally as impressive as Jack Twist. The Ennis and Jack in the opera are far from less sentimental. Their relationship comes across as more romantic than what was shown in either the film or short story.

When the film was in release I remember a lot of people, especially gay men, bemoaning the fact that Jack and Ennis seemed unaware of the advances in gay rights and new found public acceptance in the 70s and 80s. Well, that has been remedied in the opera during the scene where Ennis talks about being killed if they're in the wrong place, wrong time. Jack tells Ennis that "It's different now", "Things have changed", even though things hadn't really changed much in Wyoming or most of America outside of the big cities back then. I lost a few friends to gay bashings in the 70s and 80s in Central Michigan and even in the big cities of New York and Los Angeles. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Wuorinen's score supposedly has more depth than what is apparent when listening. One note represents Jack, another Ennis, and yet another for the Mountain. These notes aren't apparent unless you read the composer's notes. That shouldn't be necessary in any live performance. Opera is still a show. So SHOW ME, don't tell me.

I liked the Edward Hopper inspired sets, but they seemed out of place and time for Wyoming in the 60s.

The costumes were very good, especially in the beginning when Jack and Ennis go up to Brokeback for the first time. These were clearly inspired by the work of the late Marit Allen who designed the wardrobe for the film.

The performers all did a great job. What was lacking in the score was made up for by the emotions of the singers.

Daniel Okulitch and Tom Randle were perfect choices. They can both act as well as sing, and they received a few well deserved Bravos at the curtain call.

We met Daniel after the performance, and he was very gracious. He also came over to our group at a restaurant afterwards to thank us and to let us know that he was relieved to have passed the test of the true Brokeback fans. He passed with flying colors.

Annie Proulx did a good job with the libretto, but it would really work better as a non-musical stage play after a little reworking by someone with more experience writing a script.

I am not sorry I went to Madrid at all. It was an impressive show but less than what I was hoping for.

The saddest part of the opera comes at the end. Not the scene where Ennis is holding the shirts, but after the last note when the audience broke into painfully polite applause.

It is what it is.

THE ULTIMATE BROKEBACK FORUM

THE ULTIMATE BROKEBACK FORUM is the largest discussion site on the web devoted to the historic film, Brokeback Mountain. It has drawn over 6,000 registered users, and 2,000,000 posts since its inception on Christmas Eve 2005. Originally devoted exclusively to Brokeback, the Forum now features separate areas for Brokeback Mountain topics, Arts & Entertainment (Film, Books, TV & Music in general), Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender Issues, Life & Leisure, and many other topics.

http://www.davecullen.com/forum/

Chicago premiere of “Beyond Brokeback” Nov. 13

Chicago premiere of Beyond Brokeback at Auditorium Theatre celebrates role of LGBT community in attaining equality for all

Contributions made by the LGBT community in attaining the American dream of inclusiveness and equality for all will be celebrated Nov. 13 at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University (50 E. Congress Parkway) with a screening of the 2005 film Brokeback Mountain and the Chicago premiere of Beyond Brokeback.

Joining the Chicago History Museum’s ongoing year-long exhibit, Out in Chicago, Roosevelt’s day-long program will feature a 2 p.m. screening of the Academy Award-winning film Brokeback Mountain, followed by a 4:35 p.m. panel discussion with makers of the film and a 5:35 p.m. staged reading with music of messages, essays and poetry that have been inspired by the landmark movie. Attendees are invited to come and go as they like during the event.

“It has been a little more than five years since Brokeback Mountain captured our nation’s conscience and imagination. With this production of Beyond Brokeback, we are not only remembering the movie, but we are also embracing its impact and a desire to be inclusive, which is in keeping with Roosevelt University’s historic mission of social justice,” said Brett Batterson, executive director of the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University.
One of Hollywood’s highest-grossing romance films of all time, Brokeback Mountain tells the story of a complex romantic and sexual relationship between two men in the American West between 1963 and 1983, and is based on a short story written by Annie Proulx.

Its award-winning director, Ang Lee, screenwriters Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry and producer James Schamus have been invited to participate in the panel discussion on the impact the movie has had since its release in 2005.

Adapted for the stage by Gregory Hinton, and based on a book by the same name, Beyond Brokeback is a staged reading with music. It features excerpts of poignant and humorous messages, essays and poetry that were written by contributors to the Ultimate Brokeback Forum discussion website.

Original music is by composer Shawn Kirchner and director of the production is David Zak, an instructor in The Theatre Conservatory at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts. Students and faculty from Roosevelt’s theatre conservatory, working alongside several celebrity actors, also will have parts in the Chicago premiere, which is being presented for the first time in the Midwest and only the third time ever in the United States.

Tickets are $15, $20 and $25, and are on sale at Ticketmaster.com or at the box office of the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University, 50 E. Congress Parkway, Chicago. For information, call 312-922-2110.

Patricia Nell Warren - My West at the Autry National Center - Part 2

Patricia Nell Warren - My West at the Autry National Center

Inspired by the mission of Out West, Patricia Nell Warren assembled forty years of articles, essays, editorials and blogs to create My West, her terrific anthology of which I wrote in the foreword, "A masterwork by one of our most gifted storytellers, Warren's deeply evocative stories will transport even the most dug-in urban reader to the heartland that is the American West!" - Gregory Hinton

" I'm doing another anthology called My West -- a collection of short pieces about the American West that I've written over the course of 50 years. It covers quite a number of subjects, from rural to urban to religion to politics to ethnicity, and of course sexual orientation. In fact, I was inspired to leap into this project by The Autry National Center of the American West when they accepted the two Brokeback Mountain cowboy shirts into their collection of clothes worn in great Western films. Our stubborn survival in a "red state" region is a subject whose time has come. "-- Patricia Nell Warren

Beyond Brokeback: A staged reading with music

Beyond Brokeback workshop in Fiesta Hall on June 25th, 2011

Beyond Brokeback has expanded to include additional songs written and performed by Los Angeles Master Chorale composer Shawn Kirchner and friends as we prepare for its Chicago debut in November at Roosevelt University's historic 3,700 seat Auditorium Theatre, directed by David Zak.



Beyond Brokeback was recently performed for the Matthew Shepard Symposium on Social Justice in Laramie by the University of Wyoming Theatre and Dance Department, directed by John J. O'Hagan.

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN scene directed by Paul Warner