To Die for [A Comedy] - English National

A black comic opera by the British-Russian composer Elena Langer, staged by English National at the London Coliseum, about celebrity, despair and the media's appetite for other people's misfortune.

To Die for is a comic opera in the manner of a black farce, with music by the British-Russian composer Elena Langer. It satirises our fascination with celebrity and the readiness to turn someone else's misfortune into entertainment, while treating the grim, joyful and beautiful sides of life with equal attention.

The story follows Semyón Podsekayev, whose existential anguish pushes him towards suicide. He hopes that learning the tuba will save him, a plan that goes badly wrong. Several characters, including the TV presenter Ivan Vane, see his possible death as a chance to profit. In the second act, Vane's reality programme The Naked Truth turns Semyón's wish to die, and everyone's eagerness to gain from it, into a public game.

The work was first ordered by Moscow's Stanislavski-Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre, but the project was cancelled after the invasion of Ukraine, when it was judged insufficiently patriotic. This London production is staged at the London Coliseum.