The Gothenburg Opera's resident composer Hans Gefors, along with librettist Kerstin Perski, is set to bring Hitchcock's highly acclaimed movie to life at the 1,300 seats opera house in 2015.
Often nicknamed "the master of suspense", famous English director Alfred Hitchcock, who moved to Hollywood and became a US citizen in 1955, was a pioneer in the thriller genre with movies such as Vertigo, Psycho, and of course Notorious.
“I have always been interested in Hitchcock because he hides stories within stories – what seem to be simple stories have deep meaning behind them. Notorious is a thriller, but it’s also a love story. A complicated love story,” Gefors explained on why choosing a Hitchcock film.
The 1946 film Notorious was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the AllTime 100 best films, and stars Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman one of Hitchcock’s favourite muses and considered to be one of the greatest female stars in Hollywood history.
“We have worked hard to get away from the movie. Opera is much different from movies,” said Gefors, adding that expectations are high, ahead of the curtains going up on the stage show on September 19th.
“After this, I hope we remember the opera and not the movie. This is my ambition," he told The Local.
When asked if the crowd would embrace a Hitchcock inspired opera, Gefors argued: “This is hard to say, I think there is a need and a want for new operas. One could say that movies took over for the operas in the
beginning of the 20th century, but now this is changing.”
It's the first time a Hitchcock movie has been turned into an opera in Sweden, and possibly even a world first, said Gefors.
“This is an international dream team of opera singers, even though they are all Swedish. It is a dream come true to work with them," he added.
Notorious ‘The Opera’ is scheduled to run until November 1st, 2015.
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