Anna NicoleDir Richard Jones, Royal Opera House, 17th Feb-4th March
Rape, lust and the flames of hell inspired Mozart’s Don Giovanni; horror and sexual obsession led to a child’s death in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. It’s hard to think of an opera that doesn’t trade in sex and/or death. The Royal Opera’s Anna Nicole is less controversial and more canonical than it might seem at first glance.
That said, not many operas make a tragic heroine out of a tabloid babe who went from being a waitress, stripper and Playboy Playmate of the Year to becoming the 26-year-old wife to an 89-year-old oil magnate. The old man’s death 13 months later accentuated a lurid life filled with inheritance lawsuits, paternity cases and, finally, a drugs overdose in 2007. All of which makes it perfect material for Richard Thomas, composer and co-librettist of the notorious Jerry Springer: The Opera. Despite hugely demanding vocal writing, that was closer to being a musical than an opera. This time, the score is by Mark-Anthony Turnage, whose music runs from orchestral fireworks like the Francis Bacon-inspired Three Screaming Popes to jazz pieces.
Maintaining the “is it an opera/is it music-theatre?” balancing act is Richard Jones. Britain’s most iconoclastic director (and a former jazz pianist), he has won four Olivier awards and made his operatic name directing Prokofiev’s The Love For Three Oranges… with scratch’n’sniff cards. Expect, in other words, the unexpected.
Rape, lust and the flames of hell inspired Mozart’s Don Giovanni; horror and sexual obsession led to a child’s death in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. It’s hard to think of an opera that doesn’t trade in sex and/or death. The Royal Opera’s Anna Nicole is less controversial and more canonical than it might seem at first glance.
That said, not many operas make a tragic heroine out of a tabloid babe who went from being a waitress, stripper and Playboy Playmate of the Year to becoming the 26-year-old wife to an 89-year-old oil magnate. The old man’s death 13 months later accentuated a lurid life filled with inheritance lawsuits, paternity cases and, finally, a drugs overdose in 2007. All of which makes it perfect material for Richard Thomas, composer and co-librettist of the notorious Jerry Springer: The Opera. Despite hugely demanding vocal writing, that was closer to being a musical than an opera. This time, the score is by Mark-Anthony Turnage, whose music runs from orchestral fireworks like the Francis Bacon-inspired Three Screaming Popes to jazz pieces.
Maintaining the “is it an opera/is it music-theatre?” balancing act is Richard Jones. Britain’s most iconoclastic director (and a former jazz pianist), he has won four Olivier awards and made his operatic name directing Prokofiev’s The Love For Three Oranges… with scratch’n’sniff cards. Expect, in other words, the unexpected.
