Thursday, January 27, 2011

Do we really need to sex up opera?

A new production about Anna Nicole Smith and the arrival of 3D broadcasts aim to widen the appeal of an art form that is perceived as elitist.
By Adrian Hamilton

More nonsense is talked about opera than any other single art form. It may be the nature of the form itself, all hysterics and extremes of passion. It may be that it remains a minority form, which is supposed to be refined and melodic. But the temptation to blow up its antics and its subjects into dramas themselves seems irresistible.

The latest occasion is the Royal Opera House's plans to perform a new Mark-Anthony Turnage opera based on the life of Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy model who died from a drug overdose four years ago after a tempestuous life of grotesquely enhanced breasts and bad behaviour in search of wealth and stardom.  read more