# Anthony Burgess Opera



## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Anybody here ever seen an Anthony Burgess opera? If so what did you think?

Katdad mentioned a few days ago that he wanted his libretto of Ulysses to be written by Burgess, and looking into the guy I find he wrote a number of librettos, in his youth. Must have been an opera fan!


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## Hoffmann (Jun 10, 2013)

I wonder whatever happened to that long lost libretto for _A Clockwork Orange_? Now that would be an event!


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Oh god yes. It would take a wizard, but it would be so nice. Come to think of it, it would take several wizards.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

A Clockwork Orange would be good - even right-on contemporarorpolitico redux freaks would have a hard job screwing that one up. So would an opera based on one of Burgess's lesser regarded books, the Kingdom of the Wicked.


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## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

Until this point I was unaware that Burgess had written any librettos. I do know he was an opera fan. And in addition to being a master of languages and their nuances, he was also a Joycean (as am I).

So I had always imagined he being the librettist to Joyce's "Ulysses". Naturally the novel is far too long and complex to be an opera, but perhaps the "Nighttown" sequence (the Circe chapter) would make a fine modern opera. It's already been a successful and fairly eloquent stage play.

With Burgess dead, maybe Umberto Eco? I don't know. Librettos are a pretty specialized art form.

Thanks for the info, guy.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

^ oooh, The Name of the Rose - the opera! I'd love it.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

> A Clockwork Orange would be good - even right-on contemporarorpolitico redux freaks would have a hard job screwing that one up. So would an opera based on one of Burgess's lesser regarded books, the Kingdom of the Wicked.


But what if it caused a spate of copycat attacks by opera-goers? Composer obliged to withdraw opera, and it's thence only performed in underground opera houses.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Huh ... that one went right over my head. Do I need to have read Kingdom of the Wicked to get it?


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## Hoffmann (Jun 10, 2013)

I think Alexander was referring to incidents associated with the film _A Clockwork Orange_ itself. Copycat attacks of the violence ('ultra-violence') and censorship (film was banned in the UK for more than 20 years):

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/06/movies/british-test-19-year-ban-on-clockwork-orange.html


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Ah, gotcha. Hard to picture your average opera fan practicing ultra-violence ...


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## Hoffmann (Jun 10, 2013)

Except maybe on the people sitting around them unwrapping candy, snoring, chatting, etc.


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## Jobis (Jun 13, 2013)

Wouldn't a clockwork orange opera have to incorporate loads of Beethoven's music? The film is operatic enough itself, I don't think it needs an adaptation of this sort.

...I'm siiiiingin' in the rain!


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

I think it would need a lot of Beethoven. Nevertheless, as an opera it might actually work better than a film. Possibly the remarkable language of the book would become more prominent as well.


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## Hoffmann (Jun 10, 2013)

The opera might, I suppose, introduce our hero Alex delarge to Ludwig Van's famous opera _Fidelio_, thus helping break him of his 9th Symphony habit.


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## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

deggial said:


> ^ oooh, The Name of the Rose - the opera! I'd love it.


That would make a terrific opera! My fave Eco novel is "Foucault's Pendulum" but I think it would be too complex for any sort of adaptation, stage play, movie, opera, etc.


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