An unexpected by-product of pandemic lockdowns was the time and headspace they allowed for composers to work on big projects. Oliver Leith and Matt Copson used the opportunity well; his Last Days is one of the most original operas of this century. First seen in 2022, it now makes a welcome return.
Last Days is loosely based on Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film of the same name, an imagined account of a scuzzed-out rock musician contemplating suicide. Although Leith and Van Sant both refer to grunge-meister Kurt Cobain, who killed himself in 1994, the film carried a disclaimer: this is "a work of fiction and the characters and events portrayed in the film are also fictional". So it is with Leith’s opera.
