The estate of Kurt Cobain has spoken out against a stage version of Last Days, the 2005 film that is a fictionalized account of the Nirvana frontman’s final days. The estate called the opera an “unauthorized attempt” to profit from Cobain’s death. It was created by librettist Matt Copson and composer Oliver Leith, and earned positive reviews from U.K. critics.
“This show has been created and written without the permission or input of the Cobain estate,” a representative for Cobain’s estate told The Daily Mail earlier this week. “Sadly, it is an unauthorized attempt that seeks to profit and benefit from a brief meeting that took place thirty years ago.”
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In response, the Royal Opera House defended the production, pointing out that it is fictional. “The Royal Opera’s production of Last Days is adapted from Gus Van Sant’s cult film of the same name, released in 2005,” a Royal Opera House spokesperson said. “It is a fictionalized account, and was produced with the permissions of Gus Van Sant and HBO.”
Last Days is based on the 2005 film of the same name that was written and directed by Gus Van Sant. In the film, Michael Pitt played a musician named Blake, who is inspired by Cobain. The stage production also centers on Blake, a musician who is “haunted by objects, visitors and memories distracting him from his true purpose – self-destruction” after escaping rehab. Although it is fictional, the Royal Opera House’s website advertises that Van Sant’s film was “based on the final days of Kurt Cobain.”
The creators behind Last Days hope that the project would give modern audiences a new appreciation of what opera can do as an art form. “I think it should resonate,” co-director Anna Morrissey recently told The Guardian. “You should feel something. You should feel really moved. I don’t think consensus and agreement is a thing we want en masse, but rather individual understanding or resonance with yourself.”
Cobain was the lead singer and guitarist of the Seattle band Nirvana. He wrote many of the band’s most famous songs, including “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Cobain struggled with addiction and depression. He took his own life at his Seattle home in April 1994. He was 27. Cobain was survived by his wife, singer Courtney Love, and their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. Frances, 30, is a visual artist and now oversees publicity rights to her father’s image. Nirvana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, their first year of eligibility. Van Sant’s Last Days is now streaming on HBO Max.
