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A Riotous Production
Mark Anthony Turnage's 'Anna Nicole',
reviewed by ROBERT HUGILL
Mark Anthony Turnage's opera Anna Nicole (seen Saturday 26 February 2011, Royal Opera House, London UK) was much anticipated and the work's première seems to have created the sort of media interest which Covent Garden seems to have been interested in, even though the critical reactions were mixed. Even before the opera's première we had been well primed about the heroine's scandalous behaviour, and once in the opera house, the hype started even before the curtain went up as the auditorium and the foyers were festooned with images of soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek as Anna Nicole, and the red velvet curtains had been replaced by lurid pink ones, complete with her initials and image.
This was Turnage's third opera. For his first, Greek, he set Stephen Berkoff's play complete. For his second, The Silver Tassie, Amanda Holden crafted a sympathetic libretto from Sean O'Casey's play...
Copyright © 2 March 2011
Robert Hugill,
London UK
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