Newer Books that Inspired Operas Quiz

Answer: Sophie's Choice

Best-selling novel "Sophie's Choice" was published in 1979. It centered around three characters in a New York boarding house, Singo (an author), Nathan Landau and Sophie Zawistowska (an unmarried couple). Nathan was a Jewish-American and Sophie was a Polish-Catholic Holocaust survivor, not Jewish. As the story unfolded, Nathan was found to be a fraud and Sophie divulged traumatizing and heart-wrenching secrets she had carried since Auschwitz. There was controversy over the book. The author, William Styron, viewed that the Jews were not the only focus of Nazis. He argued in essays and his story-telling that Auschwitz was anti-Christian as well as anti-Semitic. He agreed with the world views that Nazis were evil but argued they spared no religion, all men were equally in danger from the Nazis.

The film of "Sophie's Choice" was nominated for five Academy awards. Meryl Streep won "Best Actress" for her magnificent performance. British composer Nicholas Maw took six years to write the opera. He was both the composer and the librettist for "Sophie's Choice". It opened at the Royal Opera House in London on December 7, 2002. With mixed reviews and complaints of a "long" opera at four hours, it was reduced to three hours for the US. It opened in Washington DC at the Washington National Opera in 2006. "Sophie's Choice" had productions in Berlin and Austria also.

Jaknginger of Phoenix Rising's Red Crew added this question to the team quiz.

Answer: Danny

"The Shining" is a Stephen King horror novel that is set in an isolated hotel in Colorado where budding author Jack (hired as the caretaker), his wife Wendy, and son Danny are the only occupants over winter. Just before the last of the employees and guests leaves for winter, cook Halloran recognises that Danny has the same telepathic powers as himself. He tells Danny "If there is trouble...you give a call." As both Jack and Danny are troubled by the ghosts of past hotel guests, Jack goes mad and attacks his family. Danny's ability to contact Halloran telepathically ultimately saves Danny and Wendy.

As unlikely as it seems, an opera based on the novel "The Shining" was a success when it debuted in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 2016. Paul Moravec was the composer and Mark Campbell was the librettist. The original idea for an opera based on the novel was the brainchild of Eric Simonson, a Minnesota Opera director (who directed the first production) and Minnesota Opera Artistic Director Dale Johnson. The music and libretto took three years to complete. The brief was to stay more closely to Stephen King's novel than the 1980 movie of the same name. The opera premiered at Ordway Music Theater, Saint Paul, Minnesota in May 2016 with baritone Brian Mulligan and soprano Kelly Kaduce as the leads. The entire run was sold out.

Another of Stephen King's novels, "Dolores Claiborne" (1992), was also made into an opera by San Francisco Opera in 2013.

This question was written by 1nn1 of Phoenix Rising.

Answer: Amy Tan

Amy Tan's first novel was "The Joy Luck Club". It was published in 1989. Her fourth novel, "The Bonesetter's Daughter", was published in 2001. Like her first three novels, this story is woven in part from Amy's life as a Chinese-American woman born to a Chinese immigrant mother, Daisy. This novel covers different locales and time periods in the life of character Ruth Young and her mother LuLing. The story is of a woman's struggle dealing with her mother's dementia in San Francisco, but also her mother's early life in China.

The opera with the same title premiered in 2008 in San Francisco. It was commissioned by the San Francisco Opera. Ms Tan wrote the libretto and Stewart Wallace was the composer of this opera which included a prologue and two acts.

Phoenix Rising's jaknginger has added Amy Tan novels to her "must read" list.

Answer: The Handmaid's Tale

Atwood's critically acclaimed and hugely popular "The Handmaid's Tale" (1985) is a dystopian novel where the American government has fallen and been taken over by Theonomic revolutionists. The new system is run by men, for men, and women are merely possessions, disallowed from independence. The birthrate has fallen to dangerous levels and any fertile women are then forced to bear children for the men in charge.

There are many parallels between Atwood's "Gilead" and modern society today, including a 50% to 60% drop in male fertility (1973 to 2011) and the suppression of women in Islamic states across the globe. "The Handmaid's Tale" has been made into a movie, a television series, a stage production, a radio adaptation and has also been released as unabridged audio recordings.

Composer Poul Ruders and librettist Paul Bentley wrote the opera version of "The Handmaid's Tale", set over five acts. While there are many arias, most of it is told in a narrative style rather than lyric. In order to convey the depressing and dangerous dystopian setting, Ruders uses a free tonal style of music, which has the repetitive chanting of the handmaids running throughout. After its world opening in Copenhagen, while mainly popular with audiences, many criticised the narrative style and felt that the pitch of the songs was not a good fit with the singers performing them.

Interest in Atwood's novel experienced a resurgence of popularity following the television series which was first aired in 2017.

Phoenix Rising's leith90 admits to reading the novel and watching the television version, but draws the line at an opera.

Answer: Civil War

Set in North Carolina near the end of the American Civil War, "Cold Mountain" (1997) is the first novel published by American author Charles Frazier. In the same year, it won the National Book Award for Fiction; in 2003 it was adapted into a movie by British director Anthony Minghella, which earned seven Academy Award nominations. The novel, which was a major bestseller (though critical reception was mixed), is loosely based on the life of W. P. Inman, a great-granduncle of the author's who lived near the titular Cold Mountain, in western North Carolina. In the novel, Inman is a Confederate soldier who runs away from a military hospital and returns home to Cold Mountain, where Ada, his former sweetheart, still lives.

The opera adaptation of "Cold Mountain" was written by American composer Jennifer Higdon, with a libretto by Gene Scheer. The opera, which was commissioned by San Francisco Opera, was Higdon's first. The composer, who lived for some time in the Appalachia region where the story is set, helped Scheer to "southernize" the speech of the libretto to make it more authentic. "Cold Mountain" premiered on 1 August 2015 at Santa Fe Opera, on the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. The opera has been performed in various US states, including North Carolina. "Cold Mountain" has two acts and an epilogue: Acts 1 and 2 are set in 1865, while the epilogue takes place 10 years after the end of Act 2.

This question was written by LadyNym of Phoenix Rising's Red Crew, who lives near a few historic Civil War sites.

Answer: Fantastic Mr. Fox

The Fantastic Mr. Fox makes a promise that he will give up stealing and will live an upstanding life as a family man. He finds a job as a journalist and settles down to raise his son, Ash. However, when he finds his home too small and his life too staid, and poverty too draining, he seeks escape from boredom. His need to outwit the farmers causes his true sneaky cunning nature to come to the fore. He begins stealing chickens, geese and turkeys and his life, and those of his family and his whole neighbourhood, are turned upside down in his quest. The reader needs to decide if Mr. Fox or the mean farmers are the heroes or the villains of the story.

"Fantastic Mr. Fox" became the first of Roald Dahl's novels to become an opera. Tobias Picker composed the opera with the libretto supplied by Donald Sturrock. It opened in Los Angeles in 1998. The Witches was the second of Mr. Dahl's books to be adapted to opera in 2008.

Red Crew's smpdit also enjoyed the stop action film adaptation.

Answer: Neil Gaiman

Published in 2002, Neil Gaiman's "Coraline" was the recipient of a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award, both in the Best Novella category (2003). Though intended for a young audience, with a 9-year-old main character, the story is quite dark, with horror elements such as ghosts and an evil witch - the Other Mother - who "collects" children.

Since its release, the novella has been adapted as a movie, a comic book, a video game, and an opera. The latter, written by English composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, with a libretto by Canadian playwright Rory Mullarkey, was premiered at London's Barbican Centre on 27 March 2018, and performed there until 7 April. The opera was co-produced by the Royal Opera House together with other international opera houses. Turnage's fourth opera, "Coraline" was specifically aimed at a family audience - unlike his previous, rather controversial works. As is often the case, the novella's content was condensed, and some elements of the story were changed or eliminated (such as the talking cat that is Coraline's constant companion). The Barbican performances - enhanced by clever special effects - were reportedly quite successful with their young viewers.

Sir Terry Pratchett, also a British fantasy author, is known for his "Discworld" series. Stephen King and George R.R. Martin are both American.

The question was written by LadyNym of Phoenix Rising's Red Crew, who has not read "Coraline", but will probably do so in the near future.

Answer: Bel Canto means "beautiful singing"

Opera weaves as a theme throughout the book. The title "Bel Canto" translates to "beautiful singing" and is an operatic term. The main character, Japanese businessman Katsumi Hosokawa, is an opera afficionado. He and a group of others attend a party thrown in his honour in an embassy in a South American country. When the group are taken hostage, he is thrown into the company of Roxane Coss, an opera singer of some renown. In the time they spend together captive they fall in love.

Roxane gets a box of scores given to her and starts singing to the rest of the group each morning. Hosokawa's assistant, Gen Watanabe, develops a strong enduring friendship with Roxane, but falls in love with Carmen, one of the terrorists. The book explores the relationships between the hostages and their captors and how friendships and love develop between them.

The opera was written by Jimmy Lopez, a Peruvian composer with the libretto provided by Nilo Cruz. It premiered in Chicago in 2015. It is a multi-language opera, with the libretto being performed in Spanish, English, Japanese, Russian, German, French, Latin, Italian and Quechua.

Red crew's smpdit has never been accused of "Bel Canto".

Answer: Charles M. Blow

Charles M. Blow published his book-length memoir in 2014; it details his childhood in rural Louisiana, including his sexual abuse by a cousin. He first joined the New York Times in 1994, and worked as a graphics editor initially before becoming an op-ed columnist and commentator. The book was positively reviewed - here is a quote from TV anchorman Lawrence O'Donnell describing the book: "When you finish Charles Blow's mesmerizing memoir, you will cry. And you will better understand poverty, the south, racism, sex, fear, rage, and love. Then you will miss being in his authorial grip. Then you will start reading this stunning book again."

The opera was written by jazz trumpeter and composer Terrence Blanchard with libretto by Kasi Lemmons. It was commissioned by the Opera Theater of St. Louis and debuted there in 2019. In 2021, it opened at New York's Metropolitan Opera, the first opera by a black composer performed at that venerated stage, in a production that was simulcast to movie theaters across the country. It has also been presented in Chicago. The opera takes place in three acts, with jazz-inflected music that still hews closely to classical opera traditions. One scene incorporates a step dance as Charles joins the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity at Grambling State University. It was generally positively reviewed, with one reviewer predicting that it will see many future productions.

This question was danced into the quiz by player pusdoc, who still hears the haunting refrain, "Char'es baby, youngest of five" in her head

Answer: Washington, DC

Thomas Mallon's 2007 novel is set in the McCarthy era, with the protagonist Timothy Laughlin eager to rout out Communists within the fabric of America. Things get complicated when the devout Catholic enters a romantic liaison with a prominent man at the State Department, and thus becomes a target in the McCarthy witch hunt known as "the lavender scare".

The opera was composed by Gregory Spears with a libretto by Greg Pierce. It was commissioned in Cincinnati and first presented there at the Cincinnati Opera in 2016. It has subsequently been performed in Chicago, Minnesota and Boston. Author Mallon attended the opening performance and bowed with the company during the ovations. Also spotted at the opening was Jim Obergefell, whose Supreme Court case resulted in a ruling to legalize same-sex marriage. The opera prunes much of the political back story and machinations present in the novel to focus more on the lovers' story and fear and betrayal.

Player pusdoc may just download the novel after writing this question for Phoenix Rising.