Berkeley and Raine to Adapt McEwan's 'Atonement' Into An Opera

 

Ian McEwan's novel "Atonement" which was turned into an Oscar-winning film in 2007 is now being adapted to an Opera, the author announced at the Southbank Centre in London on Thursday.

The announcement came during a discussion event with Radio 3 presenter and composer Michael Berkeley, who will write the music. McEwan chose not to write the libretto, a job that poet Craig Raine will take.

Berkeley assured however that McEwan will have "creative input" in the project, which has a premiere estimate of 2013.
According to Berkeley, however, McEwan will have a "creative input" into the production, set to premiere in 2013.

"We're going to have several meetings with him so he can feed into what we're doing," Berkeley told BBC News' website.

Berkeley and McEwan have worked together in the past, on an oratorio in 1982 and "For You," a small-scale opera in 2008. Berkeley was approached last summer by a German opera house about an opera version of Atonement.

The opera will be written and sung in English, but will most likely premiere in Germany.

Atonement takes place before, during and after World War II and follows the love story between an aristocrat and a soldier. In Joe Wright's film version, Keira Knightly and James McAvoy played the tragic couple. Atonement won two Baftas and one Oscar in 2008.

Currently, McEwan is working on screenplay adaptation to his novella "On Chesil Beach."

 

 

 

 

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