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Regular visitors are used to seeing internationally acclaimed works by the likes of Puccini, Rossini, Verdi and Tchaikovsky.
So it may have come as a surprise last night when the main stage of the Royal Opera House was taken over by a blonde soprano grabbing her breasts, swearing, taking drugs and pole dancing.
Bosses at the venue risked a backlash from traditionalists after the debut of Anna Nicole – an opera about Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith, who married an elderly billionaire before dying at 39 following a drugs overdose.
Just six performances have been scheduled between last night and March 4, and all have sold out.
But while Royal Opera House bosses claim they are trying to ‘move the art form forward’ by covering contemporary subjects, the production is likely to attract accusations of dumbing down and selling out from the company’s more conservative fans.
Billed as ‘a celebrity story of our times’, the opera, which stars Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek, carries a warning that it contains sex, drugs and ‘extreme language’.
The libretto has been written by Richard Thomas, co-creator of Jerry Springer The Opera – which attracted 55,000 complaints when it aired on the BBC, largely due to its negative portrayal of Christians.
Anna Nicole follows Smith’s journey from working as a lapdancer to posing for Playboy and marrying oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall when she was 26 and he was 89.
Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage told Radio 4: ‘It is difficult to know what audiences will make of it, really. If you think about older opera composers like Puccini and Verdi, they were doing things that were about then, that were about their time.
‘Anna Nicole was a global figure. When she died it was on the front page of the Financial Times.
‘How often do you get someone who is a Playboy model getting that sort of coverage?’
Librettist Mr Thomas added: ‘There is something deeply eccentric and absurd about the story and I think opera actually manages to deal with extreme subjects, extreme language, absurdly and beautifully and that’s what I think is unique to the medium.
‘It is a very delicate thing because sometimes you just want to say, “God, why are they yelling their lungs off and making this insane noise?”, but when it is right it is transcendental.’
Elaine Padmore, director of opera at the company, said: ‘This is an opera many people have had their doubts about but we are here to create operatic history, to be doing new things, to be moving the art form forward.
‘The creation of new operas has slowed down enormously. But we feel it’s terribly important that it continues.’
sourceSo it may have come as a surprise last night when the main stage of the Royal Opera House was taken over by a blonde soprano grabbing her breasts, swearing, taking drugs and pole dancing.
Bosses at the venue risked a backlash from traditionalists after the debut of Anna Nicole – an opera about Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith, who married an elderly billionaire before dying at 39 following a drugs overdose.
Just six performances have been scheduled between last night and March 4, and all have sold out.
But while Royal Opera House bosses claim they are trying to ‘move the art form forward’ by covering contemporary subjects, the production is likely to attract accusations of dumbing down and selling out from the company’s more conservative fans.
Billed as ‘a celebrity story of our times’, the opera, which stars Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek, carries a warning that it contains sex, drugs and ‘extreme language’.
The libretto has been written by Richard Thomas, co-creator of Jerry Springer The Opera – which attracted 55,000 complaints when it aired on the BBC, largely due to its negative portrayal of Christians.
Anna Nicole follows Smith’s journey from working as a lapdancer to posing for Playboy and marrying oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall when she was 26 and he was 89.
Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage told Radio 4: ‘It is difficult to know what audiences will make of it, really. If you think about older opera composers like Puccini and Verdi, they were doing things that were about then, that were about their time.
‘Anna Nicole was a global figure. When she died it was on the front page of the Financial Times.
‘How often do you get someone who is a Playboy model getting that sort of coverage?’
Librettist Mr Thomas added: ‘There is something deeply eccentric and absurd about the story and I think opera actually manages to deal with extreme subjects, extreme language, absurdly and beautifully and that’s what I think is unique to the medium.
‘It is a very delicate thing because sometimes you just want to say, “God, why are they yelling their lungs off and making this insane noise?”, but when it is right it is transcendental.’
Elaine Padmore, director of opera at the company, said: ‘This is an opera many people have had their doubts about but we are here to create operatic history, to be doing new things, to be moving the art form forward.
‘The creation of new operas has slowed down enormously. But we feel it’s terribly important that it continues.’
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