BWW Previews: Keeping Abreast of ANNA NICOLE, an Opera with a Health Warning, from New York City Opera and BAM

Where does the Mark-Anthony Turnage-Richard Thomas opera, ANNA NICOLE, stand? "On the line of opera and musiktheatre," said Elaine Padmore, former director of opera at the Royal Opera Covent Garden, speaking on a panel at the Guggenheim Museum's "Works & Process" event on September 8.

This "obscene and marvelous show," which debuted in 2011 at London's famed opera house, tells the story of tabloid queen Anna Nicole Smith not only through music and words but nonstop movement as well, choreographed by Aletta Collins. It will have its American premiere on September 17 as a co-production of New York City Opera and BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), directed by Richard Jones, and part of BAM's Next Wave Festival.

Opera or musical?

Since I first heard about the work, my big question has been "Is the life of Anna Nicole Smith a worthy operatic subject?" Well, I guess, audiences and opera critics probably asked the same about Violetta in LA TRAVIATA and Lulu in Berg's eponymous opera. According to the members of the panel--which also included Steven Sloane, the American production's conductor--the answer is "absolutely." "This could be an 18th century story if she were marrying a baron rather than a billionaire," librettist Richard Thomas asserted.

At first glance, this is definitely an opera from the vocal demands on its singers. Despite its pop-icon subject matter, the score for ANNA NICOLE is incredibly musically complex, at least judging by the excerpts at the Guggenheim preview. It runs the gamut from traditional opera to country-and-Western. One can no more imagine a soprano singing the title role--who never leaves the stage--eight performances a week than doing Isolde every night.

Soprano Sarah Joy Miller (who performed at the Guggenheim without the falsies that simulate Anna Nicole's 36DD prosthetic breasts and helped define her) does a wonderful job. She fully embodies the heroine/anti-heroine of the piece, a small-town Texas waitress named Vickie Lynn Hogan who was transformed into bombshell Anna Nicole Smith. Baritone Rod Gilfry lends admirable support as her lawyer/boyfriend Howard K. Stern (not the radio jock) and tenor Robert Brubaker is 89-year-old oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall II, her husband. (There are also a couple of New York musical theatre regulars in the cast: James Barbour, who knows a thing or two about making tabloid headlines himself, and Mary Testa.)

The same but different

Those who are more familiar with musical theatre than opera will find the development of a new work like this very different. While both might go through developmental workshops--ANNA had four of them over two years that were filmed and then watched by the creative team to help them judge what worked--the resemblance ends there.

A show like "Spiderman: Take Back the Night," for example, had 182 previews and several postponements before finally opening. In the opera house, a new production will have a fairly concise rehearsal period--City Opera's ANNA NICOLE had five weeks before ever being with the orchestra--then one dress rehearsal. And that's it. A new production, whether modern or Mozart, is stuck with an opening that's set in stone because of the constraints of the opera house system. Like it or not, the production has to be ready for prime time.

According to the librettist, this is "a story of fame, family and fortune" that he found irresistible to work on. He did, however, recall saying to composer Turnage, "I'm writing a musical, you're writing an opera. We'll put it in an atomic collider and see what we get." To make sure he accurately portrayed the story of "fame and celebrity," Thomas went to Los Angeles to interview people who knew the real Anna Nicole Smith. He discovered that finding her real story was impossible--because there were so many versions of it one hardly knew where to start. "It was my Eureka! moment," Thomas remembers. "Anna Nicole didn't actually do anything--all she did was sell her life. She even sold the rights to her Caesarian section delivery!"

An opera with a "health warning"

The result, at least for its premiere in London, was an opera came with a "health warning" for the staid subscription audience at the famed house, because of all the obscenities, fake breasts, etc., that are not the company's normal fare. And while Covent Garden may have seen its share of Eurotrash productions, it's something else when everything is new--the music style, the bold vernacular libretto--without anything familiar to hang on to. It's also a story that's hard not to take as judgmental. Composer Turnage recently told New York Magazine, "If I'm really honest, I'm quite uncomfortable with it [the opera] now. I don't think we were trying to be cruel. But it's mocking someone's real life. I wouldn't do it again."

So, again, is this an appropriate operatic subject? After listening to the panelists, who see it as an example of the tragedy of everyday life, like Mascagni's CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA, I believe it may very well be. Concluded conductor Steven Sloane, "What is an opera, what is a musical? It doesn't matter. I'm happy with ANNA NICOLE, whatever it is."

We'll see next week, when ANNA NICOLE arrives, well, in the flesh.

Caption: Sarah Joy Miller as Anna Nicole Smith

Photo by: Pari Dukovic

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