‘I Have an Advantage Over Verdi. He’s Dead.’

Article excerpt

Sting's musical *The Last Ship*, which debuted on Broadway in 2014 to lukewarm reviews, is getting a new life at the Metropolitan Opera. The rock musician's original score earned him a Tony nomination, though critics took shots at the book and production. Now, with a full operatic treatment and a new libretto by John Logan, Sting sees an opportunity: *The Last Ship* can reach audiences who never caught the stage version. "I have an advantage over Verdi," he quips. "He's dead." The opera marks Sting's most ambitious collaboration yet, transforming his elegy to Wallsend, the declining English shipyard town of his childhood, into a work designed for the world's most prestigious opera house.