Rock icon Courtney Love has been cast as the star of Todd Almond’s Kansas City Choir Boy, an experimental opera staged by the Prototype Festival at the Manhattan Arts Centre on January 8.
In an interview with the New York Times, Almond said he was a big fan of Love, and thought her voice and acting ability would make her great for the role. After presenting the idea to Love, she jumped at the opportunity.
“I’m playing it constantly. I’m looking to do things that are different. I just finished a rock tour of Australia, and it was great, but I’ve been doing that for a long time. I wanted to do something challenging,” she told the Times.
In regards to the work being called an “opera”, Almond confessed he uses the term loosely.
“When I say ‘opera, I don’t mean it’s in an operatic style. I mean it in the sense that it’s a group of songs that tell a story. I write musicals, I write plays and I write what I call opera, which I think of as a form that opens the minds of both the performers and the listeners.”
The premise of Kansas City Choir Boy is of a man and a woman who fall in love in the Midwest. The woman then disappears in search of her destiny.
The music will be performed by the Contemporaneous Ensemble, a New York-based ensemble of 21 musicians dedicated to performing and promoting contemporary music.
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