Angelina Jolie isn’t the only celeb inspiring great works of art today, it turns out that Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake are also sources of inspiration for emerging artists. Timberbrit is a new opera devoted to the pop stars described as “a tragic tale that imagines Spears‘ last concert, in the final hours of her life” where in Justin Timberlake, her long lost love, sweeps in to help save the day … or something along those lines. I’m not a big opera fan but this really does sound right up my alley ;)

Opera has a long history of over-the-top spectacle and melodramatic plots. Composer Jacob Cooper decided to embrace that excess, creating a contemporary opera that imagines the tragic end of one particularly tempestuous pop diva. The work is called Timberbrit — as in Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. It’s a tragic tale that imagines Spears’ last concert, in the final hours of her life. Timberlake returns after a long absence to win back Spears’ love, but in the end she chooses the audience’s love above all else. Cooper began work on the opera by experimenting with a technique called time-stretching. Using digital audio software, he slowed down Spears’ songs — and suddenly the light pop tunes seemed hauntingly tragic. Phrases like “Hit me baby one more time” took on an entirely different and more weighted meaning. Cooper then collaborated with his performers to create new pieces of music inspired by those slowed-down hits, and writer Yuka Igarashi crafted fresh lyrics using the vernacular of Spears’ songs — tears, love, dreams, innocence. As a doctoral student at Yale, Cooper has looked at the psychological aspects of how traditional operas stretch time during death scenes — the way a dying character in Rigoletto or Boris Godunov, say, will pause to sing a 10-minute aria. Not realistic perhaps, but it packs a punch. Cooper has expanded on that distinctive musical tradition by creating an entire opera enveloped by a fatal slowness of action. The idea is that in Timberbrit, Spears’ prolonged destruction amplifies the tragedy of her downfall. The opera premiered in New York City as a semistaged production in 2008 and is currently being developed into a fully staged version. Meanwhile, the cast and crew of Timberbrit recently shot a music video of Cooper’s song “Worst Fantasy,” inspired by Spears’ “Toxic.” In keeping with the opera’s process, the videographers started with a slowed-down, stretched-out recording of the original, then manipulated it and built on it to create something new. The result: a distillation of Spears’ music videos and public meltdowns that forces viewers to take a second look at both pop-star lives and the way the public devours them.

Well, if Victoria and David Beckham can have their own musical, why can’t Britney and Justin have their own opera? To be honest, I’m still not sold on this particular project … I might have to see it for myself to make better judgment. Hopefully there’ll be more follow-up on this opera in the coming weeks and months. Would YOU pay to see a show like this?

[Source]