Renee Fleming and Kelli O'Hara Will Star in Opera Adaptation of THE HOURS

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Broadway veteran and opera superstar Renee Fleming revealed that she, Tony winner Kelli O'Hara, and Joyce DiDonato will star in a new opera based on the Michael Cunningham novel and 2002 film, The Hours. The piece, composed by Pulitzer Prize winner Kevin Puts, will debut at the Met in the fall of 2022.

In the opera, Fleming will play Clarissa (portrayed by Meryl Streep in the film), with Kelli O'Hara as Laura, and Joyce DiDonato as Virginia Woolf.

"It's a triple threat of actresses and fascinating characters," she told the NYT.

The Hours focuses on three women of different generations whose lives are interconnected by the 1925 novel Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. These are Clarissa Vaughan, a New Yorker preparing an award party for her AIDS-stricken long-time friend and poet, Richard in 2001; Laura Brown, a pregnant 1950s California housewife in an unhappy marriage with a young son; and Virginia Woolf herself in 1920s England, who is struggling with depression and mental illness while trying to write her novel.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Broski