Ian McEwan's Atonement to Become Opera

Posted on March 20, 2010

The BBC reports that an opera version of Ian McEwan's novel Atonement is in the works. Composer Michael Berkeley will write the music for the opera and poet Craig Raine will write the libretto. The BBC says McEwan decided not to write the libretto.

Berkeley will write the music, with the poet Craig Raine writing the libretto after McEwan himself decided not to.
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," he told the BBC News website.

McEwan has collaborated on a small-scale opera in the past. It was called For You. The film based on Atonement was nominated for several Oscars at the 80th Academy Awards. The novel made Time's list of the all-time Top 100 novels.