Dancer in the Dark to Receive Danish Opera in '10

Dancer in the Dark - the bleak and acclaimed 2000 movie musical by Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier - will receive an opera adaptation in the director's native country, according to Variety.

Dancer in the Dark concerns Selma, "a Czech immigrant factory worker in the United States who becomes blind because of a congenital disease and tries to save money for an operation to avoid the same fate for her 12-year-old son."  Bjork won accolades for playing Selma in the film, which also starred Catherine Deneuve.

The opera will be unveiled during the 2010-2011 season of Denmark's Royal Theatre, and will feature music by Poul Roders with a libretto (in English) by Henrik Engelbrecht, the theatre's head of dramaturgy.

Dancer in the Dark won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.  The controversial von Trier's other films include Breaking the Waves, Dogville and Manderlay.  He was among the innovators of the minimalist Dogme 95 school of filmmaking.