Anna Nicole Opera Prepares for London Premiere

50,000 protestors called and emailed, Christian groups laid siege to Broadcasting House and 1.8m viewers tuned in for the performance. The 2005 BBC TV broadcast of ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera’ whipped up a huge media storm and pushed the musical to even greater heights – after more than 600 London performances, an American production toured regional theatres before making its New York debut at Carnegie Hall in January 2008, with Harvey Keitel as Jerry Springer.

Now the creators are back with a brand new show, which will once more be screened on the BBC. But will ‘Anna Nicole: The Opera’ cause such a stir when it opens at London’s Royal Opera House in February 2011?

Speaking candidly to a British national newspaper, Elaine Padmore, Covent Garden’s Director of Opera explained:  “Clearly the story is about a woman who met an ancient gentleman in a wheelchair, but it’s not going to be a straight narrative; choices have been made about significant moments, selecting which incidents in her life are to be built up. It is not just a documentary about her, but a parable about celebrity and what it does to people.”

The life of Anna Nicole Smith was certainly not short of dramatic material – rising from a humble background, she became a Playboy model and sex symbol before meeting and marrying an oil tycoon 63 years her senior. Following a high profile inheritance battle, she reinvented herself as a reality TV star, before dying from a prescription drugs overdose at the age of 39.

Defending the work, librettist Richard Thomas has revealed that the opera will end with Smith’s death rather than the court battle over the disposal of her remains and custody of her young daughter which followed. Padmore also likened the show to Zeit-oper, a German subgenre of popular opera in the 1920s and 30s, and other early 20th century works which tackled the socio-political issues of the time. “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.”

Other highlights for the Royal Opera House 2010/11 season include Rossini’s light-hearted Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) and Mozart’s musical masterpiece Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute).

About the Author
Ben Piper is the Web Editor for UK Tickets, a London-based company which sells discount and cheap theatre tickets for all major West End shows.

Aubrey O’Day to Pose for Cover of Playboy

Get ready to see a lot more of Aubrey O’Day!

The former Danity Kane singer will grace the cover of the March issue of Playboy she confirms exclusively to Usmagazine.com.

“I’m honored to be a part of the Playboy legacy and look forward to my March cover hitting newsstands on February 13,” O’Day tells Us.

O’ Day’s Playboy debut follows…  Read the full story at USmagazine.com