Kurt Cobain movie Last Days has been adapted into an opera

The Royal Opera House have announced details of a new production entitled Last Days, which has been adapted from the 2005 film of the same name.

The movie itself was written, directed and produced by Gus Van Sant and told a fictionalised account of Kurt Cobain's final days before his death in 1994. Now, this adaptation of the Nirvana frontman's story will play out via an opera, staged at London's Linbury Theatre this coming October.

Composed by Oliver Leith, Last Days reportedly “plunges into the torment that created a modern myth” (via The Guardian), and is about the “inevitable death of a celebrity. It could be any star now.”

Oliver – who was only four years old when Kurt died – added that the music of Nirvana “soundtracked my teens. It’s some of the first music I learned to play on the guitar. I owe a lot of how I now make music to the sound of grunge from that time – I had never really thought about where my experimental mess and repetitions had come from.”

Via the Royal Opera House: “The Linbury Theatre continues to showcase trailblazing works by the brightest talents. Matt Copson and Anna Morrissey co-direct Last Days, composed by ROH / Guildhall School Composer-in-Residence Oliver Leith and adapted from Gus Van Sant's cult 2005 film, loosely based on the final days of Kurt Cobain.”

Watch the trailer for the ROH's 2022 / 23 season below:

Read this: The 20 greatest Nirvana songs – ranked