Anna Nicole

Mark Anthony Turnage Anna Nicole opera to a libretto by Richard Thomas. Directed  2011 by Richard Jones at the Royal Opera House. Stars Eva-Maria Westbroek, Wynne Evans, Damian Thantrey, Susan Bickley, Jeremy White, Rebecca de Pont Davies, Loré Lixenberg, Grant Doyle, Gerald Finley, Allison Cook, Yvonne Barclay, Katy Batho, Amanda Floyd, Amy Catt, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, Dominic Peckham, Kiera Lyness, Marianne Cotterill, Louise Armit, Andrea Hazell, Andrew Rees, Alan Oke, Andrew Gilbert, Dominic Rowntree, ZhengZhong Zhou, and Peter Hoare. Also features onstage band members Peter Erskine, John Paul Jones, and John Parricelli. Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House (Concert Master Vasko Vassilev) and the Royal Opera Chorus (Chorus Director Renato Balsadonna).  Sets by Miriam Buether; costumes by Nicky Gillibrand; lighting  by Mimi Jordan Sherin and D.M. Wood; choreography by Aletta Collins; directed for the screen by Francesca Kemp). Released 2011, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B

This is the story of a real-life tragedy---a really "operatic" death if there ever was one! It's a worthy successor to the tragedies of "La Traviata" and "La Boheme" in that it is a rags to riches story which then disintegrates into drug abuse and a sad, lonely death.

The staging is absolutely brilliant with a superbly choreographed chorus. In addition to Anna Nicole, a lap-dancing, breast-enhanced Playmate of the year and wife of an oil magnate 60 years her senior, we meet  the equally famous TV personality Larry King and a bevy of sycophants seeking part of the action. The media is constantly present throughout the show, reflecting the real Anna Nicole's love/hate relationship with the press and TV. This is cleverly portrayed with people constantly thrusting microphones up to Anna's mouth hoping to catch a few more pearls of her ephemeral chatter and later by a number of rather disquieting dancers dressed entirely in black who have TV cameras instead of heads. They weave in and out of the action, prying, spying and recording everything, from the delivery of Anna's son right through until they zip her up in a black body bag.

The music, by Mark Anthony Turnage, is highly contrasted, sometimes as brazen as Anna herself and then quite lyrical, even tender. The libretto, by Richard Thomas (of 'Jerry Springer, the opera' fame) has a masterful use of words, although you really are better off having the English subtitles on to catch everything.

This show certainly has something for everyone, and it will appeal to people who may be put off by more conventional operas. Even those who do like the genre cannot fail to be impressed by this mixture of over-the-top brashness and the sheer pathos of this girl and her story.

There are a couple of downsides however. First of all, Opus Arte seems to have given up the practice of showing how long each track - and even each act - lasts in the booklet, which seems a little strange. Also, the sound seems to lack the relief we have got used to on HDVD discs. It also appears to be recorded at a lower level than usual. But even these minor quibbles cannot take away the fact that this is one of the most original, zesty, and enjoyable shows you're ever likely to see in an opera house. Go for it! Gordon Smith

This was shown to the L'OperaDou jury, who gave it a "B" grade used above---not bad for a controversial contemporary opera!

Update on Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 11:12AM by Henry McFadyen Jr.

Maybe we should warn readers that this opera is full of vulgar jokes and words. Many who might expect this in a stage play might be shocked to encounter this with The Royal Opera. As Opera Now reported (May/June/July 2011 at page 75), "Anna Nicole is brittle, witty, and filthy." The bad language is appropriate because Anne Nicole moved to Houston, where people talk like that.  I can assure you that I never heard anyone talk this way in Dallas.

In the Gramophone 2011 Awards Issue, the editor of the Super Audio Corner (probably Andrew Everard) had this to say (at page 147) about the Anna Nicole Blu-ray: "The sound quality is exemplary, and the whole enterprise is sensational in every sense of the word, not to mention really pushing a home cinema system to its limits."

Update on Monday, December 26, 2011 at 3:10PM by Henry McFadyen Jr.

Arlo McKinnon wrote a brilliant review of this DVD/Blu-ray in Opera News (December 2011 at page 80). He states that Anna Nicole Smith is America's Manon and concludes, ". . .the operatic assessment of [Anna's] life is both thorough and thought-provoking. It won't leave you feeling uplifted, but it is entertaining."  Richard Fairman at Gramophone (November 2011 at page 95) was apparently not even aware that a Blu-ray has been published for this. Maybe the Gramophone editors give the Blu-rays to Andrew Everard and leave the regular reviewers stuck with the DVDs. Maybe the regular reviewers for Gramophone don't have high-definition TVs.