Anna Nicole - the opera - proves "stonking great hit" (News Feature)

By Anna Tomforde Feb 18, 2011, 13:32 GMT

London - Anna Nicole, the American sex symbol whose tragic short life resembled a soap opera, has found redemption - on the stage at least - in a new work at London's famous Royal Opera House Covent Garden, according to critics Friday.

The two-act, fast-moving opera, tells the story of the life and death of hapless Anna in 16 short scenes, charting her rise from humble beginnings to Playboy model, marriage to an octogenarian Texan oil billionaire and death from a drug overdose in 2007.

It had been predicted that the opera, with its ingredients of sex, drugs and silicone implants, would be a flop - but far from it, according to critics Friday.

At its world premiere in Thursday evening, the work by British composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and librettist Richard Thomas - who co-wrote Jerry Springer: The Opera - was celebrated with tumultuous applause.

Anna Nicole was 'more deserving of an opera than any individual who has ever lived,' said Thomas, 60, ahead of the first night. 'That's my line because I'm sick of that snobbery.'

Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek - renowned for her Wagner interpretations - was praised for her sensitive portrayal of Anna, who was just 39 when she died.

The production by Richard Jones, which replaced the opera's traditional burgundy velvet stage curtain with a bright pink version - was hailed as 'deliciously imaginative' Friday.

The initials ER II, the gold-embroidered emblem of Queen Elizabeth II on the original curtain, were substituted by A n R - for Anna Nicole Regina.

'Anna is in the lineage of Bizet's Carmen, Berg's Lulu and Weill/Brecht's Jenny,' wrote the New York Times.

'It proved a weirdly inspired work...an ultimately deeply moving new opera. This was an improbable triumph for Covent Garden,' said the leading US paper.

Britain's Daily Telegraph, which had been initially critical of the Royal Opera's latest venture, called the new opera 'a stonking great hit.'

'It's often very funny, but it's not just a crude farce with a downbeat ending...it is underpinned by genuine compassion for Anna Nicole and genuine scorn for the forces that mould, and then destroy her,' wrote Telegraph art critic Rupert Christiansen.

The Guardian was less impressed. 'At least some of Anna Nicole has the dramatic trappings of opera, but not many. 'The ending is undeniably tragic, but perversely unmoving, since most of the music Turnage provides for her never suggests or seems to look for sympathy,' said its critic.

'Nicole echoes the virulent nature of the culture of celebrity today. Her story is an opera for our times,' said Elaine Padmore, director of opera at Covent Garden.

Anna Nicole, which the Royal Opera House admits is partly aimed at attracting young audiences to opera, will be shown until March 4. dpa at mat Author: Anna Tomforde

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