King book gets opera treatment

SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco Opera will present the world première of Tobias Picker’s Dolores Claiborne on Sept. 18 next year.

The company said Monday the opera, with a libretto by J.D. McClatchy, will be based on Stephen King’s 1992 novel about a character who denies killing her employer but admits murdering her husband almost three decades earlier after learning he sexually molested their 14-year-old daughter.

King’s book was made into a movie in 1994 starring Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Christopher Plummer.

King, a bestselling novelist known for horror, suspense and supernatural elements, has had most of his books adapted for film or TV, but this may be the first time his work has become an opera.

Mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick will sing the title character, soprano Elizabeth Futral will perform the elderly employer Vera Donovan, Susannah Biller the daughter Selena St. George, Wayne Tigges the husband Joe St. George, and Greg Fedderly will be Detective Thibodeau.

George Manahan conducts and James Robinson directs. There will be six performances through Oct. 4 of the staging, a co-production with the Opera Company of St. Louis.

This will be the fifth opera for Picker after Emmeline (1996), Fantastic Mr. Fox (1998), Therese Raquin (2001) and An American Tragedy (2005).