Charles Wuorinen’s operatic version of Annie Proulx’s gay classic gets mixed reception at Teatro Real, Madrid.

American composer Charles Wuorinen’s much-hyped opeartic adapation of Brokeback Mountain has opened in Madrid to decidedly mixed reviews from European and American critics.

Guillem Clua of Out.com felt that the production focuses too centrally on the ominous aspect of the characters’ fate “turning the story into something more akin to an ice-cold epic than fierce melodrama.” He went on to say that “if someone was looking for any kind of romanticism, they’d have better chances logging onto Grindr while up in the mezzanine.”

Written by Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain began its life as a short story published in the October edition of The New Yorker back in 1997. In 2005 it hit the headlines when it was turned into a feature film by Academy-award winning director Ang Lee, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger. Wuorinen’s 2014 adaptation with Proulx as librettist heralds its transformation into an opera.

“Several years ago when the film of the story originally appeared, I saw it and thought that this was certainly going to be operatic material that I could use. Then I read the story and realised that...