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| Sarah Joy Miller. Photo: Pari Dukovic |
It’s a special night at the opera when propulsive and richly idiomatic music is paired with a sharp and witty libretto. And it’s a unique night at the opera when an American tabloid tragedy is told with compassion and humor—also recalling the art form’s tragic heroines. Such is Anna Nicole, an opera by British composer Marc-Anthony Turnage (Greek, Blood on the Floor) and British writer Richard Thomas (Jerry Springer: The Opera), commissioned by London’s Royal Opera House which makes its US premiere in a co-production by BAM and New York City Opera and opens BAM’s 2013 Next Wave Festival on September 17.
Directed by Richard Jones (who also directed the London production) and now with conductor Steven Sloane leading the New York City Opera Orchestra (including renowned jazz drummer Peter Erskine), the cast is culled from opera and Broadway—with soprano Sarah Joy Miller in the lead role, and featuring James Barbour (A Tale of Two Cities as Daddy Hogan); Susan Bickley as Virgie; Robert Brubaker as Old Man Marshall; Ben David (A Little Night Music) as Billy; John Easterin as Larry King; Rod Gilfry (South Pacific) as Howard K. Stern; Joshua Jeremiah as Deputy/Mayor; Christina Sajous (American Idiot) as Blossom; Mary Testa (Queen of the Mist) as Aunt Kaye; and Stephen Walden as the Trucker.
Anna Nicole tells the sensational story of Anna Nicole Smith, a small-town Texas waitress and single mother (and later uber-breast-enhanced exotic dancer) in pursuit of not only a better life, but the American jackpot. Smith wed an octogenarian billionaire and became a Playboy model and tabloid celebrity, living a life of excess and substance abuse—under the constant glare of the media—until her death at the age of 39 from an accidental drug overdose.
