From Page to Stage: Literary Adaptations at San Francisco Opera
Romeo & Juliet
Premiered 1867, SF Opera premiere 1922, most recent performance 2019-2020 Season
Composed by Charles Gounod, based on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet has inspired a wealth of artists, serving as a springboard for such adaptations like Leonard Bernstein’s musical West Side Story, Sergei Prokofiev’s famed ballet Romeo and Juliet, and even an animated children’s movie Gnomeo and Juliet. In the world of opera, French composer Charles Gounod brought the story of Shakespeare’s most iconic star-crossed lovers to the stage with his musical take on Romeo and Juliet.
The opera first premiered in 1867 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris with much success; 55 years later Gounod’s opera made its way to the San Francisco Opera stage in 1922. While Gounod’s librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carré closely translated Shakespeare’s original text, they also sought to spotlight the story of the two lovers (rather than focus on the political intrigue of Shakespeare’s play). The opera famously comprises of four love duets between the title characters—each duet marking a momentous point in their love story arc. At the end of the opera, Gounod delays Romeo’s death to give the lovers a brief moment of reunion, and a chance for a final duet before the title characters die in each other’s arms.
Romeo and Juliet was most recently performed at the War Memorial Opera House in 2019, opening San Francisco Opera’s 97th season.
Photos: Ron Scherl and Cory Weaver
Billy Budd
Premiered 1951, SF Opera Premiere 1978, most recent performance 2019-2020 Season
Composed by Benjamin Britten, based on Billy Budd by Herman Mellville
Billy Budd is a young sailor whose innocence and charisma arouses both devotion and envy. After inadvertently striking down the ship's master-at-arms, Billy’s fate lies in the hands of his commanding officer…
Although left unfinished by author Herman Melville in 1891, the manuscript was transcribed, edited, and published by 1924. With its popularity second only to Moby-Dick among Melville’s works, Billy Budd has since been adapted into film, a stage play, and an opera.
British composer Benjamin Britten, no stranger to adapting literature to the stage, was the mastermind behind the operatic adaptation. Britten, along with librettists E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier, premiered the original piece in 1951, then a modified two-act version in 1964. Billy Budd would find its way to our stage for the first time in 1978. Fun fact: Billy Budd is one of very few operas to have an all-male cast.
This opera was last seen on our stage in 2019 when the critically acclaimed production from Tony Award-winning director Michael Grandage returned to our stage, and was hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as having "…a mighty and tempestuous fervor in telling this tale."
Photos: Ron Scherl and Cory Weaver
Moby-Dick
Premiered 2010, SF Opera Premiere in 2012, SF Opera co-commission
Composed by Jake Heggie, libretto by Gene Scheer, based on Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
The famous tale of captain Ahab and his obsession with the white whale, Moby-Dick was originally commissioned as a second operatic collaboration between composer Jake Heggie and librettist Terrence McNally after the success of Dead Man Walking. McNally ultimately withdrew from the work due to health issues and Heggie went on to collaborate with librettist Gene Scheer and director Leonard Foglia.
Sheer told the New York Times “Wherever I could use Melville’s language, I did. Probably 50 percent of the libretto is taken directly from the book. But the voice of the narrator is gone. That’s in the music.”
Moby-Dick had its world premiere at Dallas Opera in 2010, and came to San Francisco in 2012. The San Francisco Chronicle described it as “a masterpiece of clarity and intensity, with a score that is at once thematically compact and richly inventive.” The San Francisco Opera production was filmed for television and later released on DVD.
Photos: Cory Weaver
Dead Man Walking
World Premiere and SF Opera Premiere in 2000, SF Opera commission
Composed by Jake Heggie, libretto by Terrence McNally, based on Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean
In 1982, Sister Helen Prejean became a spiritual advisor to a convicted murderer sentenced to the death penalty. Her 1993 bestselling memoir Dead Man Walking, chronicles her experience gaining an intimate perspective into the many lives irrevocably altered by a violent crime and a lawfully mandated execution.
When San Francisco Opera approached award-winning playwright Terrence McNally with an opera commission, McNally proposed Dead Man Walking as a potential title to his new collaborator, the then unknown Jake Heggie. The idea immediately generated creative sparks, and the operatic adaptation of Dead Man Walking began.
Dead Man Walking premiered at San Francisco Opera on October 7, 2000. Joshua Kosman of San Francisco Chronicle remarked, “The commissioned score, the maiden effort of composer Jake Heggie and librettist Terrence McNally, must be reckoned something of a masterpiece -- a gripping, enormously skillful marriage of words and music to tell a story of love, suffering and spiritual redemption.”
Photos: Ken Friedman
The Bonesetter’s Daughter
World Premiere and SF Opera Premiere in 2008, SF Opera commission
Composed by Stewart Wallace, libretto by Amy Tan, based on The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan
In 2008 The Bonesetter’s Daughter premiered at the War Memorial Opera House. Commissioned by San Francisco Opera, the opera was an adaptation of Oakland native Amy Tan’s book of the same name published in 2001. Tan—perhaps best known for penning her famed 1989 novel The Joy Luck Club—wrote the libretto, and collaborated with composer Stewart Wallace to bring this opera to life.
The Bonesetter’s Daughter explores the exchange of generational stories and revelations of identity between three main figures: a Chinese-American daughter, her immigrant single mother, and a ghostly Chinese grandmother. In an NPR interview, Amy explains how she approached adapting the novel into an opera libretto: "You know, the key was really to cut out the words and let the music stand for the emotions, because that's what opera is … it's music, it's performance, it's great voices. And the story was a framework in a way."
Together, Tan and Wallace traveled to rural China to glean inspiration for their opera. In turn, Wallace composed a score that incorporated traditional Chinese instruments, fusing his Western music style with the sounds of the East. Following the opera’s premiere, SFGATE described it as “an arresting and vividly memorable experience.”
Photos: Terrence McCarthy
Dolores Claiborne
World Premiere and SF Opera Premiere in 2013, SF Opera commission
Composed by Tobias Picker, libretto by J. D. McClatchy, based on Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
Stephen King’s 1992 psychological thriller Dolores Claiborne was transformed into an opera as part of San Francisco Opera’s 2013-14 Season. The San Francisco Opera commission marked King’s first operatic adaptation with a score composed by Tobias Picker and libretto by J. D. McClatchy. Dolores, who has endured life with an abusive husband, is a “beleaguered working-class woman with the strength to get up and do what needs to be done” (SF Gate).
A highlight of the world premiere was the last-minute takeover of the title role by iconic soprano Patricia Racette, who had already been slated to star in no less than three of the 2013-14 season’s productions.
The opera was praised for its “near-miracle of stagecraft” and it’s excerptable vocal moments that were “without exception, glorious - sweet toned, expressively urgent and melodically graceful” (SF Gate).
Photos: Cory Weaver
Omar
Premiered in 2022, SF Opera Premiere in 2023
Composed by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, libretto by Rhiannon Giddens, based on A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar ibn Said by Omar ibn Said
In the early 1800s, Islamic scholar Omar Ibn Said was forcibly taken from his village in West Africa and sold into slavery in Charleston, South Carolina. After attempting to escape, he was imprisoned in Fayetteville and taken to the plantation of another slaveholder. While there, Omar recorded his story in Arabic, an autobiography that would be used to create the Pulitzer-winning opera by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, Omar.
Language is a key instrument in this piece with Omar’s written word in a number of forms—in Maghrebi Arabic (a west African form), in English, and in his own hand— incorporated into projections (designed by Joshua Higgison), scenery (designed by Amy Rubin), and costumes.
Acclaimed by The New York Times as a “sweeping achievement,” this opera gave new meaning to book-to-stage pieces; every element was crafted to reflect writing as identity.
Photos: Cory Weaver
The Monkey King 美猴王
World premiere at SF Opera in 2025, SF Opera commission
Composed by Huang Rho, libretto by David Henry Hwang, based on Journey to the West
Journey to the West is the second of the great Chinese literary classics commissioned to be adapted into a World Premiere opera. The first being Dream of the Red Chamber, which premiered in 2016. The Monkey King 美猴王 represents an episode for Journey to the West, wherein Sun Wukong (the monkey king of the title) wreaks havoc on the heavens in a bid for immortality.
The Monkey King character and his supernatural abilities have influenced pop culture for generations. There are countless iterations of the Monkey King story and figure, but American audiences may be most familiar with Goku in Dragon Ball whose monkey tail and staff are a direct reference to the wily hero.
Set to premiere at San Francisco Opera in the fall of 2025, The Monkey King 美猴王 will feature music by Huang Ruo and a libretto by David Henry Wang. Award-winning Director Diane Paulus will collaborate with scenic designer and puppeteer Basil twist in bringing the world of The Monkey King from page to stage.