To Die for [A Comedy] - English National Opera Tickets

Set in the chaotic new Russia of the 1990s, To Die For follows the unemployed, pathetic and hopeless Semyon Podsekayev. Having missed out on the dodgy economic boom-times of the new country, all his business ventures keep falling apart. Finally he decides he's had enough and plans to commit suicide. But his intended suicide is immediately hijacked by a horde of bloodsuckers and crooks eager to profit from it. Semyon becomes instantly famous, put at the centre of a glitzy TV variety show that will broadcast his suicide live, surrounded by monsters. Soon he realises life might be worth living after all - but is it too late?

A comic opera in two acts composed by British-Russian Elena Langer, this exuberant black farce is based on Nikolai Erdman's 1928 play The Suicide, which has been banned in Russia on two separate occasions a hundred years apart. Darkly funny and clever, it is a satire about our fixation on fame, and the shameless exploitation for profit, entertainment and voyeurism of other people's misery. It features a libretto by Arkady Zastyrets, translated into English by Maggie F. Gottlieb, and is directed by Sam Brown, Artistic Director of the Nederlandse Reisopera. Effortlessly witty, packed with clever social satire, and utterly unique in storytelling, To Die For is an unmissable piece of opera that feels all too relevant to our modern age of reality television and social media.

Don't miss this shocking but funny story about the nature of fame that pokes fun at the ugliest parts of human nature.