The late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s estate has bashed the Royal Opera House for their decision to stage a production based on Gus Van Sant’s 2005 movie “Last Days”, loosely inspired by the Nirvana frontman’s final hours in Seattle.
The production has revealed a synopsis
The production has the following synopsis:
“Based on the film ‘Last Days’, this haunting world premiere brings a modern tale of self-destruction to the opera stage. 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. Adapted from Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film based on the final days of Kurt Cobain, this new opera plunges into the torment that created a modern myth.”
Already raking in glowing reviews, the production has now been called out by Cobain’s estate, who claims that no permission was given for it to be staged (via Daily Mail):
“This show has been created and written without the permission or input of the Cobain estate. Sadly, it is an unauthorized attempt that seeks to profit and benefit from a brief meeting that took place thirty years ago.”
In a statement to Consequence of Sound, the estate said, “‘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.”
As previously reported, the Last Days opera is a production taking place at the Royal Opera House in London. The Royal Opera House’s composer-in-residence Oliver Leith told The Guardian in April the production “…plunges into the torment that created a modern myth.” Leith added, “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.”
