Artist News

Courtney Love to star in alt-opera

By | Published on Monday 6 October 2014

Courtney Love

Courtney Love’s ‘Magic School Bus’-ride of a life has careered somewhat wildly into the realm of “visionary opera-theatre”, as it’s been confirmed that the rock vocalist will star in a new all-singing show titled ‘Kansas City Choir Boy’.

Technically, the ‘opera’ – a “theatricalised concept album about love altered by unexpected fate” inspired by Greek mythology – isn’t really an opera at all, at least not in the conventional sense. It’s rather a kind of narrative-driven musical ‘in the operatic style’ or, as its creator, composer Todd Almond, says, something akin to a “long-form music video for the stage”, which I’d say means his choosing Love to sing it was quite logical, really.

Love, who’ll play a woman living in the Midwest, who leaves her lover in order to follow ‘a greater destiny’, has told the New York Times she is listening to (and by implication, learning???) the score “constantly” at the moment, adding: “I’m looking to do things that are different. I wanted to do something challenging”.

‘Kansas City Choir Boy’ is set to premiere at the NYC-based festival Prototype: Opera/Theatre/Now, which takes place next year, between 8-17 Jan. It’d be mean, inappropriate and pointless at this stage to post that video of Love singing ‘Celebrity Skin’ live, with her vocals and guitar isolated, as that has no relevance to the opera. None at all.

So this is the clip anyway:



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