The final days of Kurt Cobain, the rock star whose anguish and anti-establishment stance spoke to millions of generation X teenagers, are to be dramatised by the Royal Opera House (ROH).
Cobain, who killed himself at his Seattle home in April 1994 at the age of 27, is the subject of Last Days, an opera adapted from Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film of the same name.
The acclaimed movie, which centred on a young musician named Blake, was loosely based on Cobain’s last days and hours. It depicted the fictional star’s descent into pain, depression, isolation and drug-taking before he killed himself.
Cobain’s devoted fans were distraught at his death, mystifying older opinion-formers who had failed to register his appeal and influence.
More than 30m copies of Nevermind, the 1991 album written by Cobain for Nirvana, in which he was guitarist, singer and songwriter, have been sold worldwide.
Conspiracy theories over Cobain’s death were widespread despite earlier suicide attempts, a history of drug use and a rambling suicide note. Excerpts were read by his wife, the punk singer Courtney Love, at a vigil in Seattle after his body was found, attended by thousands of fans.
The opera has been composed by Oliver Leith, the 31-year-old composer-in-residence for the ROH and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, with the libretto by Matt Copson. Directed by Copson and Anna Morrissey, it is due to be staged in October in the ROH’s Linbury Theatre.
The opera “plunges into the torment that created a modern myth”, the ROH said. Blake, its central character, has recently returned home after a spell in rehab. “But he is haunted by objects, visitors and memories distracting him from his true purpose – self-destruction”.
Leith, a “massive” Nirvana fan, said opera was a fitting vehicle for the subject of Last Days. Cobain was “an archetypal story – operas deal well in those”.
Van Sant had not sensationalised his death, he added. “We know it is coming. It is used as a lens through which we see everyday somnambulistic life heightened. For example, telling a delivery person to ‘come back another day’ is loaded with tragedy. I think opera also raises the stakes of the quotidian.”
Leith was four when Cobain died, “but the music soundtracked my teens. It’s some of the first music I learned to play on the guitar.
“I owe a lot of how I now make music to the sound of grunge from that time – I had never really thought about where my experimental mess and repetitions had come from.”
He said he hoped the opera would appeal to a wide range of people, not just Nirvana fans. It was about the “inevitable death of a celebrity. It could be any star now”.
Last Days was announced as part of the ROH’s 2022-2023 season, which includes 20 new opera and ballet productions, nine world premieres and three UK premieres.
As well as classic operas by composers such as Puccini, Mozart and Verdi, the ROH is staging the UK premiere of Least Like the Other – a portrait of Rosemary Kennedy, the older sister of President John F Kennedy who was lobotomised at the age of 23.
Another opera, History of the Present, marks the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement by telling the story of ordinary lives still suffering collective trauma from the Troubles.
• This article was amended on 8 April 2022 to clarify that the composer-in-residence role is a collaboration between the ROH and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.
