Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Football fans have been among the most dedicated appreciators of opera. Every weekend, all over the country, scarcely a game passes without the assembled masses erupting into a lyrically reworked version of one of the higher art's catchier arias.
When West Ham fans chant "Paolo di Can-i-o" for example, it is at least partly in homage to the genius of Giuseppe Verdi's "La dona è mobile", which provides the original tune.
This summer, however, the roles will be reversed when, in an effort to shake off opera's "posh" image, singers at the Royal Opera House will perform a number of the football terraces' most famous refrains.
Among a trio of "Opera Shots" – short operas lasting less than half an hour – in this year's summer season will be Jocelyn Pook's Ingerland. The libretto enlists Millwall Football Club's classic: "No One Likes Us, We Don't Care", Liverpool's favourite, "Steve Gerrard, Gerrard, He's Big and He's Fucking Hard", not to mention a chorus of WAGs deliberating over whether or not to undergo cosmetic surgery.
Another of the three commissions is from the musician Nitin Sawhney, who researched calculus and quantum physics for his Entanglement, a short opera, based on a pregnancy test.
The performances in June include video interviews with supporters at leading football grounds visited by Pook, a composer and musician whose past work includes a joint piece for the Proms with the former poet laureate Andrew Motion.
The third "shot" is by Orlando Gough, whose short television opera The Mathematics of a Kiss was broadcast in 1989.
John Lloyd Davies, the head of opera development at the Royal Opera House, said that he was after work which would "shake things up" and extend the appeal of opera to a new audience.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments