Opera based on Iain Banks novel The Wasp Factory to debut in Austria

An opera based on Iain Banks’ first novel will get its world premiere later this year, just months after his death.

The Wasp Factory makes its debut at the Bregenz Festival in Austria in August before moving on to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, central London.

The production, written by Australian composer Ben Frost and librettist David Pountney, is inspired by Banks’ story of a violent teenager living in a remote part of Scotland.

Banks died earlier this month aged 59. He announced in April that he had been diagnosed with gall bladder cancer and had just months to live.

The Wasp Factory was the first of a string of best-sellers written by Banks who successfully penned darkly-humorous mainstream novels and a series of science-fiction stories.