From the drugs world of New Mexico to an operatic libretto, one of most successful TV shows of all time is to be adapted for the stage.
Sung Jin Hong, the artistic director and conductor of the One World Symphony, has announced that he is to compose a new opera based on the US hit TV show Breaking Bad.
The show centres on the life of Walter White, a cancer sufferer who takes to selling methamphetamine to secure the financial future of his family.
Hong’s opera will focus on White’s lust for power as he is drawn deeper into the criminal underworld. It will also draw inspiration from Shelley’s poem, Ozymandias, after which one of the episodes from the fifth and final season of the show was named after.
On the One World Symphony website, Hong has invited fans of the show to contribute their ideas for the opera, and added: ‘At this very moment, the details of Breaking Bad — Ozymandias (2014) may not be confirmed, but I hope to explore the question that the drama obsessively and hauntingly asked: “are we all breaking bad?”‘
Breaking Bad – Ozymandias will premiere in January 2014 as part of the One World Symphony’s ‘Addiction’ programme.