Anna Nicole

Director Richard Jones brings Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Anna Nicole back to the Royal Opera House after a sell-out world premiere in 2011. Turnage and his librettist Richard Thomas were inspired by the dramatic dark-edged Cinderella story of model and celebrity Anna Nicole Smith.
The result is a hilarious, irreverent , poignant and finally tragic drama with an inventive score by Turnage that blends operatic lyricism and expressionism, jazz, blues and musical theatre. Jones' production is a visual delight - with inventive designs by Miriam Buether and Nicki Gillibrand and asks searching questions about the nature of the price of fame.
Texan-born single mum Anna Nicole is determined to become famous at any cost. When Anna’s billionaire sugar-daddy dies, she finds herself caught in a lengthy and expensive legal battle over her husband’s estate.
Stressed from the judicial proceedings and in pain from her excessively large breast implants, she turns to a lethal cocktail of booze and drugs to get her through – which exacts a brutal toll on her son’s well-being and her own life.