A new Jane Eyre opera in 2012?

Anyone interested in running a bed & breakfast in Haworth? Because if you are, this article from The Telegraph and Argus may be of interest:

Just off the historic main street of Haworth, and ideally situated for all the shops and attractions of the famous village, Heathfield is a four bedroom end terrace.
This was Ray and Trudy Rutland’s first experience of running a B&B and they’ve enjoyed every moment of the last four-and-a-half years.
“We only had limited experience of staying at other B&Bs, so we read widely and asked friends and relatives what they looked for when they stayed in a B&B,” says Ray.
The couple were drawn to the house because of its great position in the heart of the village. “It’s just a minute from the Brontë Parsonage Museum and a gentle stroll to all the shops, pubs and restaurants. It was ideal as bed and breakfast as the Visitor Information Centre was just 50 yards down the road.” [...]
On the first floor are two bedrooms – one with built-in wardrobes – and two part-tiled en-suite shower rooms. The second floor has a roof light on the landing and two further bedrooms with roof lights and en-suite shower rooms.
“Our favourite room is the open plan kitchen/dining room, which is the hub of the house where we like to greet new arrivals over a cuppa. Serving up a delicious breakfast, chatting and sharing our guests’ plans for the day, discussing the many beautiful places to visit and debating the best Bronte book – all this makes it our favourite room and the most enjoyable part of running a B&B.
Ray adds: “A special milestone for us both was being awarded a 4 Star Silver Award by Quality in Tourism for 2011, in recognition of our many on-going improvements and making our guests’ stay more memorable.
“Running a B&B would appeal to anyone who enjoys sharing hospitality and would like to earn a living using what is, for most, their largest asset – their home.
“It’s a lifestyle choice with very busy times, but also quiet times, and you can pencil in a holiday whenever you choose, with no boss to answer to.
“To some extent you can be in control of how busy you are, with web and other advertising. Haworth is a village that offers all year round trade and our visitors’ book is like a who’s who from around the world. It would be easier to name the countries that guests have not come from.”
Heathfield Bed & Breakfast in Bronte Street, Haworth, is on the market for £265,000 with Dacre, Son & Hartley, Keighley, tel (01535) 611511, web www.dacres.co.uk (Sue Ward)

USA Today quotes from Charlaine Harris's words on Jane Eyre last week at BEA (BookExpo America) 2011:

Harris used her coveted spot on a panel that included Diane Keaton and Jeffrey Eugenides (who discussed their new books) to tout three books that influenced her as a child: Edgar Allan Poe's Collected Stories ("never read Poe at night"), Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre ("a heroine who was plain, but never too plain in the movies") and Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers ("unlike any of the Hollywood versions"). (Bob Minzesheimer)

And The Queens Gazette brings news of another Jane Eyre enthusiast:

Adriana Trigiani, former writer for The “Cosby Show,” and author of the critically acclaimed Big Stone Gap series as well as her young adult novel Viola in Reel Life, visited Bayside H.S. on May 19. [...] She also spoke about the influence of author Harper Lee on her life as well as the novel Jane Eyre, which resonated with the students, having read both Jane Eyre and To Kill a Mockingbird.

The Item of Millburn and Short Hills has an article on

Millburn resident Louis Samuel Karchin and Community Congregational Church Music Director Toby Twining both love to compose music.
Karchin enjoys creating music for operas and concerts. Twining likes to find new ways to explore the human voice and frequently uses experimental harmony in his compositions.
Aside from their love for music, the two men have something else in common.
Both Karchin and Twining were recipients of the 2011 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, which they each were awarded for music composition.
With the grant money from his 2011 Guggenheim fellowship, Karchin, a longtime Millburn resident, has planned to spend much of the next two years at home working on two projects. One is a commissioned work for the Network for New Music located in Philadelphia. His other project is composing music for an opera of the novel "Jane Eyre." Karchin is working on this opera with his librettist Diane Osen, another Millburn resident. They met when their daughters attended pre-school together.
"One of the things this (fellowship) is useful for is freeing up time, in my case for writing music," said Karchin, "it's rather enjoyable because I'm spending about a week on each project and going back and forth." [...]
Karchin will be writing longer and more dramatic pieces of music for his second project, the opera of "Jane Eyre."
"Opera provides the possibility of delving very deeply into the way the characters may think or feel," said Karchin.
He has faced other challenges during this project. In crafting the libretto, he and Osen had to decide which parts of the novel were the most important.
"Jane was a child in the first half of the book and you can't have a child singing for an hour," said Karchin, who added that the libretto was written based on Jane's adult life.
Karchin hopes to finish both of his projects during 2012. (Lindsey Kelleher)

The current, albeit screen, adaptation of Jane Eyre is reviewed briefly by The National (UAE) (and given 4 stars) and by the high school journal The Mountain Lion Messenger. The Music Behind the Screen reviews Dario Marianelli's soundtrack for the movie. Nothing Witty Never Pretty posts about the novel. Finally, Book & Reader begins a discussion about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Categories: Brontëites, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Opera