Celluloid Opera: Contemporary Composers and Librettists Have Been Turning to Cinematic Sources
Operas have traditionally been based on books and plays. But over the past few decades, composers and librettists have started adapting movies. The emotionally intense films of Danish director Lars von Trier, whose Breaking the Waves is the basis for the opera by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek, are especially suited to the stage. Read about the three major von Trier-inspired works, as well as HGO’s involvement in commissioning and producing operas with cinematic sources.
Lars von Trier at the Opera
COMPOSER: Poul Ruders
LIBRETTIST: Henrik Engelbrecht
ORIGINAL FILM: Dancer in the Dark, dir. Lars von Trier (2000)
ABOUT: Ruders and Engelbrecht—both Danes like von Trier—were the first to adapt one of the director’s screenplays into anopera.The titular Selma is a Czech immigrant in 1960s America who sacrifices everything to save her son from going blind. Von Trier’s movie is itself a musical, with songs by its leading lady Björk.
COMPOSER: Missy Mazzoli
LIBRETTIST: Royce Vavrek
ORIGINAL FILM: Breaking the Waves, dir. Lars von Trier (1996)
ABOUT: A certified blockbuster among film-based operas, Breaking the Waves has been performed by over a dozen companies since its Opera Philadelphia premiere. HGO will produce the first recording of the work.
COMPOSER: Mikael Karlsson
LIBRETTIST: Royce Vavrek
ORIGINAL FILM: Melancholia, dir. Lars von Trier (2011)
ABOUT: Breaking the Waves librettist Vavrek teamed up with Swedish composer Karlsson for this apocalyptic sci-fi story, which deals with themes of depression. Lauren Snouffer, who plays Bess in HGO’s production of Breaking the Waves, starred in the world premiere. Von Trier made use of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde prelude for the film’s soundtrack.
HGO at the Movies
COMPOSER: André Previn
LIBRETTIST: John Caird
ORIGINAL FILM: Brief Encounter, dir. David Lean (1945)
ABOUT: Previn was an Oscar-winning composer known for his arrangements of big-screen movie-musicals (Gigi, Porgy and Bess, My Fair Lady). His second opera, which premiered at HGO, is based on Noël Coward’s screenplay—a tale of an illicit railway-station romance.
COMPOSER: Kevin Puts
LIBRETTIST: Mark Campbell
ORIGINAL FILM: Joyeux Noël, dir. Christian Carion (2005)
ABOUT: This fictionalized retelling of the 1914 Christmas Eve truce follows three WWI battalions from Scotland, France, and Germany. HGO will mount Puts’s Pulitzer-winning opera in winter 2026 in a new production by director James Robinson and featuring Breaking the Waves star Ryan McKinny.
COMPOSER: Jake Heggie
LIBRETTIST: Gene Scheer
ORIGINAL FILM: It’s a Wonderful Life, dir. Frank Capra (1946)
ABOUT: This HGO commission adapts the beloved Christmas classic, with some slight tweaks to the film’s plot. George Bailey’s guardian angel Clarence is renamed Clara and sung by a soprano. And while there are plenty of festive chimes in Heggie’s score and a quartet of angels, librettist Scheer cuts the infamous “Teacher says…” lineabout bells and wings.
