“it is a curious story… i have it written in faded ink”
Following in the footsteps of Harrison Birtwistle‘s Minotaur and Thomas Adès’ The Tempest (which featured the half-human character Caliban), the Royal Opera House has commissioned yet another opera based upon a legendary monster. The as-yet-untitled oeuvre is the life story of Anna Nicole Smith, with music by Mark-Anthony Turnage (The Silver Tassie) and libretto by Richard Thomas (Jerry Springer: the Opera).
According to Elaine Padmore, Covent Garden’s director of opera, the Anna Nicole tuner “… is not going to be tawdry; it is going to be witty, clever, thoughtful and sad. In broad outline, it will tell the story of her life, the people who influenced her, her progress . . . . a parable about celebrity and what it does to people. It can be moving, it can be funny and it tells universal truths about human frailty.
“It is a very sad story – a larger-than-life American story, as was Puccini’s Girl of the Golden West. It will be a slice of our times – of America in the pre-Obama days.”
La Cieca’s invites her cher public to suggest possible casting, aria titles and so forth for the work. [via The Telegraph]
Aaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!
Hugues Cuenod is not only alive but recently a bride – he married his partner of many years. Cornell MacNeil probably could use a comeback role and J. Howard Marshall II could be that role. Of course it has come too late for Jerome Hines who is with Jesus now, he would have been perfect.
The discussion of the Anna Nicole opera has shown up before and La Cieca nominated Eilana Lappalainen as Anna Nicole – definitely the later trim-spaed Anna Nicole.
http://www.eilana.com/personal.htm
Larry Birkhead – I don’t know, perhaps heldentenor Thomas Rolf Truhitte.
http://www.thomasrolftruhitte.com/
With Ms. Lappalainen, a noted Salome and Mr. Truhitte a heldentenor this suggests a Post-Wagnerian, Late Straussian style of composition. Kind of Die Frau Ohne Schatten goes to Vegas by way of Showgirls.
Roberto Alagna could play the guy who wound up being the father of her second child. A bit of blonde dye in the hair, that’s all you would need.
I get a Mélisande vibe reading all this (that poor baby daughter), so if they don’t make the music too difficult, Magdalena Kozena could perhaps be a good Anna?
“Hugues Cuenod is not only alive but recently a bride – he married his partner of many years. Cornell MacNeil…”
Honey, if ever a paragraph needed a transitional sentence, this is it.
Not to be unduly serious, but since her death it’s come to light that Anna Nicole was actually either possibly slightly retarded and/or brain damaged. Her career (as such) was sparred on by a lot of people making money off of her (sound familiar? Britney Spears is pretty much in the same boat, although she’s somewhat more together than AN, which is not saying much), and basically she got fed into the machine and spit out because she simply did not have the skills or understanding to fully comprehend what was happening to her.
An opera about that has the potential to be interesting, I think — there’s a lot of mythology related this.
Once again, the inexplicable European condescension to America and what it perceives its “culture” to be. It’s one thing to show Pinkerton as a cad, although God knows it was, in fact, the Americans who invented and then patented seduction and abandonment. But that picture posted by our doyenne of the naked Germans in Mickey Mouse hats–am I really supposed to continue to believe that the Europeans are so culturally, morally, and politically more pure than we horrible Yanks?
Hey Vicar! Come on out from under the tea cozy, from the Prince Harry counterpane, and throw a lit match into the crowd!
I definitely think Domingo for the ancient husband.
If this takes off, it is going to make a lot of sopranos’ programme biographies look rather odd:
Other roles include Micaela, Mimi, Violetta, Liu, Desdemona, and Anna Nicole Smith.
I vote for Kozena, because I have always thought of her as a vacuous tart with only the implication of a talent, as opposed to any actual talent. Failing that, Damrau in a fat suit.
If Anna has one big aria, it would have to be:
“Bring me a PICKLE”
If it hasn’t been suggested already, Hugues Cuenod would be perfect for the rich, old husband.