Gormenghast (opera) Gormenghast (opera) Gormenghast is an opera in three acts composed by Irmin Schmidt to an English-language libretto by Duncan Fallowell, based on Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast Trilogy". It premiered at the Opernhaus Wuppertal on 15 November 1998. Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast Trilogy", on which the opera is based, is a Gothic tale recounting the rise of the evil Steerpike from a kitchen boy in Gormenghast castle to total domination of the castle and its aristocratic inhabitants. Benjamin Britten had contemplated composing an opera based on the trilogy in the 1950s, but then changed his mind. Irmin Schmidt and his librettist Duncan Fallowell,
Gormenghast (series) Gormenghast (series) Gormenghast is a fantasy series by British author Mervyn Peake, about the inhabitants of Castle Gormenghast, a sprawling, decaying, gothic-like structure. Originally conceived as a single on-going novel, the series was ended by Peake's death and comprises three novels, "Titus Groan" (1946), "Gormenghast" (1950), "Titus Alone" (1959) and a novella, "Boy in Darkness" (1956), whose canonical status is debated. Peake was writing a fourth novel, "Titus Awakes" at the time of his death, which was later completed and released by Peake's widow in 2009. Although the first two installments do not contain any overtly fantastical elements, "Gormenghast" is