Anna Nicole Smith - Trashing or Saving the Royal Opera House!
In London art is still in the hands of the urbane middle classes. We should fight to make it less so, even if it means operas about porn stars.
This week sees the launch of a new opera based on the life of Anna Nicole Smith, the buxom Playboy centerfold and tabloid star who died in 2007. This all happens at the Royal Opera House - normally the bastion of alienating, difficult, and expensive operatic works.
Elaine Padmore, the director of opera at Covent Garden, has said in a recent interview: “We’re getting coverage for Anna Nicole Smith in places we wouldn’t expect to take an interest in our productions, though if they think it’s going to be a girlie show, they’ll be disappointed. It may be a tacky subject, but it won’t be tackily staged.”
This is a long way from the traditional Royal Opera House fare of Figaro and Faust. But by addressing a more interesting, contemporary subject like Anna Nicole Smith it is also a step towards making opera more accessible to everyone.
Every seat at the Royal Opera House is reportedly subsidised by the taxpayer by around £50. Yet, as the author’s of a recent Royal Society of the Arts pamphlet have said, “The people who benefit from the public funding of art are still, overwhelmingly, the well educated, who tend to be middle class.”
If they keep showing the same old operas, then they will simply attract the same old audience. If they want to keep receiving their subsidy, they need to show that they are connected, innovative and accessible. An opera about a porn star is a start.
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So it's true!
Sex still sells :)
I agree, Elfie! Sadly, I
I agree, Elfie! Sadly, I never got a ticket to Anna-Nicole so I can't tell you how it was. It sold out within hours!
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