The most important thing to clarify about Last Days – the production at Royal Opera that every single Londoner is talking about/fighting to get into – is that it is not about Kurt Cobain. Instead it is based on Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film of the same name starring Michael Pitt, which is only loosely about the final days of the Nirvana frontman and is very much fictionalised. Yet the association is there, and in depicting the Cobain-alike character Blake retreating from fame and the world as he moves towards towards taking his own life, we have one of the most daring operas of recent times.
It was composed by Oliver Leith with a libretto by Matt Copson and was first performed at Royal Opera in 2022. It was acclaimed then, but returning to Royal Opera now it seems to be striking a louder chord. Something about the themes, about the growing legend of Cobain and simply the daring nature of the work, is bringing the buzz.
