The New York City Opera has commissioned 70-year-old Charles Wuorinen (pictured) to compose a work based on the story of same-sex attracted cowboys Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist.

“Ever since encountering Annie Proulx’s extraordinary story I have wanted to make an opera on it,” Wuorinen said.

“It gives me great joy that [...] New York City Opera have given me the opportunity to do so.”

New York City Opera says Wuorinen's music is “luxuriant with events, lyrical and expressive, strikingly dramatic”.

Wuorinen’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, an adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s novel, had its world premiere at New York City Opera in 2004.

Brokeback Mountain the opera is scheduled to premiere in 2013.

Photo: Nina Roberts