Film star, model, beauty icon, sex symbol – 2026 would have marked the 100th birthday of Norma Jeane Mortenson, who became an icon as Marilyn Monroe but died of a sedative overdose at the age of just 36.
The opera by British composer Gavin Bryars begins on the night of August 4, 1962. Together with Marilyn, we look back on her life: on the orphan Norma Jeane, the young actress who was exposed to (male) gazes without being taken seriously as a performer, and on one of the most photographed women of her time, who never really felt seen.
In their revue-like musical theater piece featuring a soprano, baritone, three-part male choir, chamber orchestra, and jazz trio, Bryars and Bowering explore the often contradictory external and internal images of a personality who has long been objectified and assigned the role of a naive beauty. While the boundaries between public and private persona, between Marilyn as identity and construction, seem to blur again and again, various facets of a woman's complex inner life, her thoughts and feelings about life, love, death, and fame, flicker into view.
Premiere March 7,
Further performances: March 11, 15, and 20, April 12, 18, and 30, May 3, 15, and 29, 2026
