New Opera ANNA NICOLE to Play Royal Opera House in Feb. 2011

The new opera by Mark-Anthony Turnage and Richard Thomas entitled ANNA NICOLE, will debut at London's Royal Opera House in February of next year. The opera centers around the late actress/model Anna Nicole Smith.

Starring in the production is Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek as the title character. The show is expected to be directed by Richard Jones and conducted by Antonio Pappano, music director of Covent Garden.

Richard Jones (Original Director) is the original director for this spring's production of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades. Since its premiere at Welsh National Opera, it has been seen at San Francisco Opera, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Canadian Opera Company, and at the opera houses of Ferrara, Modena and Bologna. The London native has directed award-winning productions for opera and theater, including the Broadway production of Titanic, which garnered five Tony Awards. His opera credits include Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and an Evening Standard Award-winning production of Wagner's Ring cycle for Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Ravel's L'enfant et les sortileges, Schubert's Der Zwerg, and Martin?'s Juliette at Paris Opera; Verdi's Un ballo in maschera and Puccini's La bohème at the Bregenz Festival; and Wagner's The Flying Dutchman and Janá?ek's Jenüfa for Netherlands Opera. He also designed Welsh National Opera productions of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel and Berg's Wozzeck; English National Opera productions of Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges, J. Strauss's Die Fledermaus, Sawyer's From Morning to Midnight, Berg's Lulu, and Berlioz's The Trojans; and Jonathan Dove's Flight and Tchaikovsky's Euryanthe at Glyndebourne.

His Munich production of Handel's Julius Caesar was named "Production of the Year" by Germany's Opernwelt magazine. His work on The Trojans and Hansel and Gretel won him Laurence Olivier Awards and his Wozzeck received both a TMA Award and a Royal Philharmonic Society Opera Award.

Further casting has yet to be announced.The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in the London district of Covent Garden. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Originally called the Theatre Royal, it served primarily a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later Handel's first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there.

For more information, visit www.roh.org.uk.