Margaret Atwood’s first commissioned opera, Pauline, is due to open next May in Canada. The opera is set at the end of Canadian writer, actress, and poet Pauline Johnson’s life, and is aimed at reestablishing the poet’s rank among Canada’s literary tradition. She arranged the arias to incorporate Johnson’s authentic poetry. She said of Johnson, the child of a Mohawk chief and a Quaker Englishwoman, that she was “torn by loyalty and ambition. She had courage, brains and beauty, like many of the best operatic Heroines. She also led a double life, in which a secret love, a jealous sister and an early death were elements.” Johnson died in 1913 of breast cancer.

Atwood began writing the libretto in 1999, but the project ran into trouble when Randolph Peters, the original music collaborator, resigned. City Opera Vancouver then picked up the venture commissioning Christos Hatziz to compose. When Hatziz also decided to leave the production, Tobin Stokes was chosen to complete it from a group of over forty candidates. Mezzo-soprano Judith Forst has been cast in the title role. City Opera Vancouver sums up the storyline by saying “Haunted by failure torn by her dual identity as both Mohawk and white, Pauline Johnson fights to confront her past before the end, as her doctor tries to control the pain and her sister tries to control the story that will be told.” No word yet on whether there’s a speculative or sci-fi twist to Atwood’s production (though it seems unlikely).

Other recent instances of big-name prose writers producing work for the stage include Audrey Niffenegger’s (author of The Time Traveler’s Wife) modern fairytale ballet, Raven Girl, which was performed by the UK’s Royal Ballet in May and June, and David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas, saw his 3D opera, Sunken Garden, performed last April in the UK as well.

Source: The Independent
For more information see:http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/margaret-atwood-writes-her-first-opera-about-the-tragic-life-of-canadian-heroine-pauline-johnson-8730533.html