Pentatone will release a world premiere recording of The Shining, an opera by Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell, based on the novel by Stephen King. The album will be released digitally and as a two-disc physical album April 12.
This recording follows Lyric Opera of Kansas City's 2023 production of the opera, which first premiered at Minnesota Opera in 2016. Conductor Gerard Schwartz returns from the Kansas City run, leading the Kansas City Symphony and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City Chorus. Baritone Edward Parks also returns from the 2023 production, singing the part of Jack Torrance.
The Shining was the first collaboration between composer Moravec and librettist Campbell, who have since reunited to write three oratorios: All Shall Rise, A Nation of Others, and Sanctuary Road. The collaboration is unusually starry, as Moravec won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2004 for his Shakespeare-inspired Tempest Fantasy, and Campbell and Kevin Puts' opera Silent Night won the same prize in 2012. Silent Night is currently planned to receive its Metropolitan Opera premiere in the 2026-27 season. Campbell also wrote the libretto for Mason Bates' The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, the world premiere recording of which, also starring Edward Parks, was released via Pentatone in 2018.
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