Kurt Cobain estate condemns Royal Opera House for exploiting singer’s final days: “enough is enough”
The estate of Kurt Cobain has taken a swipe at London’s Royal Opera House for adapting Gus Van Sant’s dramatised film Last Days. It has called the production an “unauthorised attempt” to exploit a fictionalized account of the Nirvana singer’s final days.
In a recent statement, the estate wrote: “Last Days has been created and written without permission. This show, just like the movie, is an unauthorized attempt to benefit from the brief meeting set up with Kurt and Gus Van Zant. This one meeting has been exploited for profit for thirty years now, and enough is enough.”
According to a Royal Opera House spokesperson: “The Royal Opera’s production of Last Days is adapted from Gus Van Sant’s cult film of the same name, released in 2005. It is a fictionalised account, and was produced with the permissions of Gus Van Sant and HBO.”
The new opera is the work of ROH and Guildhall School of Music and Drama composer-in-residence Oliver Leith, with Matt Copson penning the libretto. Copson also co-directed the production, which follows the last days of a Cobain-esque character called Blake, with Ana Morrisey.
An official synopsis of the production reads: “Blake, a musician, has recently escaped rehab to return home But he is haunted by objects, visitors and memories distracting him from his true purpose — self-destruction.” Last Days recently concluded its premiere run at Linbury Theatre.
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