Margaret Atwood’s Operatic Debut

Margaret Atwood is ready for her debut. Fifteen years after she began work on Pauline, the opera is set to launch in May 2014 at the Vancouver City Opera House. Pauline, Atwood’s first libretto, is a dramatization of the final years of the Canadian writer and actress Pauline Johnson. When the project was first announced in 1999, Atwood said of her subject, "She had courage, brains and beauty, like many of the best operatic heroines. She also led a double life, in which a secret love, a jealous sister and an early death were elements.'' Creative differences and a lack of funding led to the decade-long delay. Last year, however, the Vancouver Foundation revived the project, signing composer Tobin Stokes to do the music.