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The Minnesota Opera plunges into the Cold War this weekend with its world premiere adaptation of the political thriller "The Manchurian Candidate."

An adaptation of Richard Condon's best-selling political thriller of 1959, it tells the story of Raymond Shaw, a U.S. Army soldier and the son of a prominent political couple. Captured during the Korean War, he is brainwashed and trained as an assassin. In a harrowing opening scene, his new masters tell him to kill an army buddy, who also has been brainwashed.

"Shoot Bobby Lenbeck through the forehead Raymond," comes the order.

"Yes sir!" Shaw responds, then walks over to his friend. "Hiya kid!"

"Hi Sarge! What's cooking?" the young man asks with a smile. 

Shaw draws a gun and kills him, without displaying a shred of emotion. 
He is sent back to the United States, completely unaware his mission is to a kill a presidential candidate. Setting the plan in motion is his own mother, Eleanor Iselin. She is in league with Communists and prepared to use her son for political murder to further the career of her new husband, a U.S. senator.  


The operatic nature of the story, and the Iselin character in particular, came to librettist Mark Campbell years ago.

"She is the greatest monster in American opera right now," Campbell told an audience after an opera workshop in December. "At least in my humble opinion. Yes, I meant that affectionately, really."   

Although the story emerged during the Cold War, its themes of paranoia and fear of unknown malignant forces still have resonance.

"This opera is very relevant to our politics, to today," Campbell said.

From its opening notes, "the Manchurian Candidate" builds tension, an electric atmosphere that attracted composer Kevin Puts.

"Even from the very opening you hear this pulse, and you hear this harmony" he said. "But it the ground starts to shift under you, and so you never really feel that there's a firm footing. And the music moves from scene to scene in that way where you are never really allowed to get comfortable and nothing is what it seems."

The first Minnesota Opera commission for Puts and Campbell was "Silent Night," 

The Minnesota Opera's hypnotic thriller

It told the World War I story of the 1914 Christmas Truce between Allied and German troops in the trenches during World War I.

Minnesota Opera Artistic Director Dale Johnson said Puts caught lightning in a bottle with his first opera score. Johnson thinks the composer can do it again.

"I think he was born to it," Johnson said. "To the idea of singing, and the idea of that magic combination of words and singing and orchestra writing." 

Puts said he finds composing opera easier than other musical compositions that are often open ended and leave him with many musical choices.

An opera's libretto, he said, provides the advantage.

"It has all this information in it; it has stage directions," Puts said. "You know, 'the light is coming up from the dawn and the soldiers are sleeping.' Great! Sure! I know what to do."

"The Manchurian Candidate," which also hits the stage next weekend, is the latest in the company's new works initiative which commissions new American operas in the hope they will go on to be produced elsewhere.

Music Director Michael Christie believes The Manchurian Candidate could prove timely and attractive around the country. 

"For companies that could turn this around this and aim for 2016, 2017 when we will have this massive presidential election, I think it could be quite interesting," he said. 

By that time the Minnesota Opera will on to its next big commission: an adaptation of Stephens King's "The Shining," opening in May next year.

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"The Manchurian Candidate" reunites librettist Mark Campbell and composer Kevin Puts, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for their first Minnesota Opera commission.

The Minnesota Opera tackles the Cold War

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