Entertainment

Anna Nicole Smith's life story inspires an opera

Corinne Davies
Monday, March 15, 2010
Anna Nicole Smith

The life of the late Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy model who married an elderly billionaire, will be turned into an opera to debut at London's Royal Opera House early next year, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The Royal Opera House claims the premiere will be "a major event in the UK arts calendar" and the title role will be played by Dutch soprano, Eva-Maria Westbroek.

Written by libretto Richard Thomas (who co-wrote Jerry Springer: The Opera) and composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, the opera, simply titled Anna Nicole, is scheduled to debut at the Royal Opera House on February 17, 2011.

The storyline of the opera is yet to be revealed, but much of the more dramatic details of Anna Nicole's life are expected to be included. Born Vickie Lynn Marshall in 1967, Anna Nicole went from working as a waitress in Texas, to posing for Playboy and modelling for Guess.

In 1994 she married oil tycoon J Howard Marshall II, who was 63 years her senior, three years after meeting the billionaire in a Houston nightclub where she worked as a stripper.

Though she reportedly never lived with him, Anna Nicole maintained that she loved her husband, and age did not matter to her. Thirteen months after their wedding, 90-year-old Marshall died in Houston.

Anna Nicole died in 2007 at the age of 39, after an accidental overdose of prescription drugs, still awaiting a verdict on her long drawn-out quest to secure her late husband's fortune for herself.

The year before her own death, her 20-year-old son Daniel died of a drug overdose, just three days after Anna Nicole gave birth to her second child, daughter Dannielynn.

User comments
Wesco, drugs and her lifestyle have killed her. Not what she gave to others. She took much more than she gave.
I hope it comes to Oz, I LOVED Anna Nicole, I still have a framed signed photo of her in my house, I miss her alot she made the world seem a more fun and bubbly place, she gave so much of herself it eventually killed her. RIP Baby.

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