Mar 11 (Pen Men at Work): Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith’s life is going to turn into an opera, which will be staged at the Royal Opera House, one of UK’s most respected institutions and has been co-written by one of the creators of Jerry Springer.

Smith started off as a stripper and went on to become a model and actress. She was entangled in a legal battle, that ran long, to claim a share of her late husband, oil tycoon J Howard Marshall’s estate. He was 89 at the time of their wedding and was 63 years her senior. She died in 2007 at the age of 39 from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.

The opera will be called Anna Nicole and will premiere on February 17th 2011.

Mark-Anthony Turnage and Richard Thomas, two of Britain’s lead composers and also the people behind Jerry Springer, the West End hit. Eva-Maria Westbroek, the Dutch soprano will be playing Smith. According to the Royal Opera House, the premiere would be a major event in UK’s art calendar.

Later this year, the Royal Opera House will also see the UK premiere of Philip Glass’s In The Penal Colony, based on a short story by Franz Kafka about an execution machine. The show will open around September.

Angela Gheorghiou, world-famous soprano, will be starring in the title role of Adriana Lecouvreur, based on the life of the tragic French actress for a show that will be staged for the first time since 1906 at the Royal Opera House.