From the Guardian UK, we read of Elvis Costello's latest venture
Elvis Costello to write opera about Hans Christian Andersen:
Elvis Costello has made a career out of confounding his fans. Now he looks likely to baffle audiences again - by writing an opera.
... Costello is preparing to write a piece of lyric theatre based on the life of Hans Christian Andersen. It will premiere at the Royal Danish Opera in October.....
According to Henrik Engelbrecht, head of dramaturgy at the Royal Danish Opera: “We looked around the serious end of the rock scene for a person we thought could contribute to our art form. We very quickly came up with Elvis.”We went to see him in Dublin with the idea of doing something about Hans Christian Andersen. We thought we would be teaching him about Andersen but he knew all about him.
“He already had a very operatic idea: that of a staged song cycle connected with the life of Andersen and actually about the writer's obsession with Jenny Lind [the Swedish soprano].
”There is an element of fiction: in Costello's version, Andersen has written Lind a number of secret arias (he was also something of an actor and composer) and the scenario is that he presents his pieces to her for the first time to sing.“
and the killer quote: words to live by:
The 50-year-old singer-songwriter has consistently expressed his unwillingness to be remembered for ”a handful of songs I wrote 25 years ago“. Or, more tersely: ”I don't give a fuck about being a rock'n'roll star. I just want to do the things that interest me.“
