Annie Proulx Writes Libretto for ‘Brokeback Mountain’ Opera

Over the years Annie Proulx has founded a small-town Vermont newspaper, written the Pulitzer prize-winning novel “The Shipping News” and seen her short story “Brokeback Mountain” become a highly-acclaimed film. Now she has tackled another, perhaps more unlikely, kind of writing: as an opera librettist.

Ms. Proulx has written the libretto for Charles Wuorinen’s long-awaited new opera of “Brokeback Mountain,” based on her story of the doomed love of two cowboys, which will have its world premiere Jan. 28 at the Teatro Real in Madrid. Ms. Proulx said in a statement that one of her goals in writing it was “to preserve the dry and laconic western tone” of the story.

The collaboration took shape in Wyoming, where Ms. Proulx and Mr. Wuorinen began working together five years ago at an artist’s retreat. Mr. Wuorinen, who has received a Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur grant, said in a statement that Ms. Proulx had produced a “splendidly concise and apposite libretto, in which Proulx, through her characteristically laconic style, conveys character and scene with great efficiency.”

The opera was originally commissioned by Gerard Mortier for New York City Opera, which he briefly led before leaving over concerns that it could no longer afford the kind of seasons he was promised. After he became the artistic director of the Teatro Real he decided to present the work there.