HOOK, LINE AND SINGER

For the 50th anniversary of Norman
Maclean’s beloved story, the river
runs all the way to the opera stage

Michael Kuhn (Paul) and Schyler Vargas (Norman) on the Yellowstone River

“There was no clear line between religion and fly fishing.”

Few sentences evoke Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It quite so perfectly. Published in 1976, his semi-autobiographical tale of two brothers, their Presbyterian minister father, and a Montana childhood shaped by family, faith and fly fishing became an American classic—and, thanks to Robert Redford’s Oscar-winning 1992 film, a cultural touchstone.

Now, for the book’s 50th anniversary, A River Runs Through It is taking an unexpected but strangely fitting leap into opera. Opera Montana presents the world premiere of a new adaptation September 18–27 at the Ellen Theatre in Bozeman before taking the production to Missoula, where some of Maclean’s story is set, for two performances October 3 and 4. It is the company’s first commissioned opera.

Composer Zach Redler and librettists Matt Foss and Kelley Rourke return to the heart of Maclean’s story: brothers Norman and Paul, now adults whose lives have taken them in different directions. Norman is recently married to Jessie; Paul, a newspaperman, gambler and artist with a fly rod, is in more trouble than he cares to admit. Jessie has family troubles of her own involving her wayward brother Neal, and what begins with hopes for a restorative fishing trip ultimately brings Norman and Paul home to their parents and one last day on the river with their father.

Maclean’s landscape presents Redler with an irresistible musical canvas. His score draws on bluegrass, country, jazz and honky-tonk alongside classical influences to capture both the sweep of the Montana wilderness and the intimacy—and occasional volatility—of family life. “For me, at its core, A River Runs Through It is an opera about family, faith, and the beauty we all share,” says Redler. A 24-piece instrumental ensemble will bring that landscape to life.

The seven-member principal cast is led by baritone Schyler Vargas as Norman and tenor Michael Kuhn as Paul, with soprano Christine Taylor Price as Norman’s wife, Jessie. Ryan Bryce Johnson is her brother Neal, Megan Marino is Heidi (“Rawhide”), Phyllis Pancella plays the brothers’ mother, Clara, and bass-baritone David Pittsinger is their father, John, the Presbyterian minister whose faith and love of fly fishing loom so large over his sons’ lives.

Michael Kuhn and Schyler Vargas

Foss, who also directs, believes that the more specifically Montana the story becomes, the more universal it feels. “You don’t have to spend any time standing up to your waist in a frigid river to recognize the rhythms of this story,” he says. Rourke finds a natural kinship between Maclean and opera itself: his story is filled with love, frustration, joy and grief—the outsized emotions that music can express when language reaches its limits.

Michael Sakir, Opera Montana’s Artistic Director, conducts, with scenic and video design by Kristin Ellert and lighting design by Stephen Sakowski. Montana PBS will also film the world-premiere performances for a future broadcast.

Perhaps the loveliest endorsement comes from Maclean’s son, author John N. Maclean, who admits that turning such a familiar literary—and cinematic—classic into an opera is no small undertaking. But he believes his father would have been delighted to see his characters brought to the stage, and “his words, often only a heartbeat away from poetry, turned to song.”

Michael Kuhn and Schyler Vargas

For a story in which rivers, words, family and memory have always flowed together, opera may turn out to be a natural next current.

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photos by Claire Kleese and Charlotte Mae Ellison

A River Runs Through It
Opera Montana
The Ellen Theatre in Bozeman, MT
September 18–20 & 25–27, 2026
University of Montana’s Dennison Theatre in Missoula, MT
October 3 at 7:30; October 4 at 3
90 minutes, no intermission
for tickets and more info, visit Opera Montana

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