Artist News

Karen O announces opera

By | Published on Friday 26 August 2011

Karen O

Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O will premiere her debut opera at St Ann’s Warehouse in New York on 12 Oct. Entitled ‘Stop The Virgens’, the show will run for eight performances at the venue.

Created by Karen O and design director KK Barrett, the show is part of The Creator’s Project, which is producing various events in NY in October. O’s opera will feature performances from members of The Raconteurs, Money Mark, Yeah Yeah Yeahs drummer Brian Chase, and actress Lili Taylor. Musical direction was handled by O’s other YYYs bandmate Nick Zinner and producer Squeak E Clean.

O says of the show: “I have a pretty good idea of what the psycho opera is about but I wouldn’t dare try and put it into my clumsy words. I’m hoping to create an original live experience, it should feel like a psychedelic ride laced with catharsis. There is emotional cost to our narrative so we’re aiming to engage the audience, this piece isn’t aiming to be all about spectacle or abstraction though there is good helping of both in the production. It’s aiming to have all the good stuff of escapist entertainment with a few sucker punches to the gut along the way. I’m in the camp that needs to discover and take risks, sometimes it’s with the promise of something special and new, sometimes it’s to stay awake, either way it’s much more stressful with all the uncertainty but worth the pain in the end”.



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