The world of opera collided with that of lurid headlines, strip clubs and Playboy as a new work based on the life of the late Anna Nicole Smith premiered at London's Royal Opera House.
But already the late tabloid star's estate is considering legal options against the makers.
Anna Nicole is one of the prestigious opera company's riskiest projects yet, both because it leaves Covent Garden open to accusations of sensationalism in a bid to stay relevant, and because some of the characters in the story are still alive.
The show, described by the Royal Opera House as a "celebrity story of our times that includes extreme language, drug abuse and sexual content", opened in London on Thursday.
The Royal Opera House also imposed a minimum age of 16. The opera runs in London for just six performances and the Royal Opera House said earlier this week that it had already sold out.
Smith, who died of a prescription drug overdose in 2007 at the age of 39, is played by Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek.
But a former boyfriend of Anna Nicole Smith, Larry Birkhead, has denounced the London as "trashy", saying her estate is weighing up legal options over the opera.
Mr Birkhead, the father of Smith's only surviving child, Dannielynn, says the Royal Opera House had never tried to contact the Anna Nicole estate about the show.
Photos of the production show Westbroek flaunting massive breasts and a blonde wig. One scene is said to depict Smith performing a sex act on a character in a wheelchair.
"That lady is no Anna Nicole," Mr Birkhead said of the soprano.
"We are looking at our legal options to see if they misused Anna's image and likeness. We are going to have the estate attorneys look at what can be done about it."
The estate of the former model and reality TV star controls the commercial use of her image. It is administered on behalf of four-year-old Dannielynn, who Mr Birkhead is raising in Los Angeles.
Mr Birkhead said he had not seen the opera. But pictures and reports he had seen were upsetting.
"No-one ever gave us a chance to respond," he said.
"They didn't even ask to check whether history is correct. They could have picked up the phone and called...It is like someone took a bunch of tabloids and threw it at the producers and said, see what you can do with this.
"They said it was going to be something that was tastefully done. But then they put a trailer out on YouTube that was really kind of trashy and tabloidy."
Mr Birkhead said he was particularly concerned about the effect of such material on Dannielynn, who he described as the "spitting image" of Anna Nicole and who was beginning to ask questions about her mother.
"One day my daughter is going to see this trash. These aren't the images you want to relate to your child," he said.
Before the show even opened, British media reported that lawyers were nervous, particularly in relation to another of Smith's ex-boyfriends, Howard K Stern, whose conviction for supplying her with drugs before her death in 2007 was dismissed last month.
The Royal Opera House did not deny the reports but declined to comment in detail on the work's contents or whether alterations had been made at the last minute for legal reasons.
Touchy subject
At the time of Smith's death, the former pin-up model and reality television star was embroiled in a long-running legal battle over the will of her late husband, billionaire oil tycoon J Howard Marshall.
They had married when she was 26 years old and he was 89.
The music in the opera is composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage and the director is Richard Jones.
"She wasn't just this dumb blonde," Turnage told CNN.
"Her life touches on so many things, it seemed to encapsulate the 21st century."
The libretto is by Richard Thomas, no stranger to controversy after his musical, Jerry Springer: The Opera, offended many Christians and sparked a record number of complaints when it was aired on BBC television in 2005.
In a recent piece written for the Times newspaper, Thomas defended the choice of Smith as a subject for a major new production at one of the world's top opera houses, pointing out that many mainstay opera heroines led far-from-exemplary lives.
"No-one goes to the opera to judge Salome or Carmen," Thomas wrote.
Critical acclaim
Despite the controversy surrounding the opera, it has been applauded by critics.
"It's often very funny, but it's not just a crude farce with a downbeat ending," the Telegraph's Rupert Christiansen said.
"It is underpinned by genuine compassion for Anna Nicole and genuine scorn for the forces that mould, and then destroy her."
Westbroek was lauded by Christiansen for playing the lead role "with inexhaustible energy ... which never strikes a false note of sentimentality".
Jessica Duchen, the Independent's reviewer, was equally enthusiastic after witnessing "the most hotly anticipated night in contemporary opera in years".
"It's a tremendous show, fast-paced, spare and concentrated," Duchen wrote.
"She's not only a tragic heroine: she is the rise and fall of western excess itself. Westbroek is a startlingly innocent Anna, caught in demoniac forces ... beyond her control."
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