Dancer in the Dark is to become an Opera, premiering at Denmark's Royal Theatre during their 2010-2011 season. Already the Swedish soprano Ylva Kihlberg - pictured below - has been given the lead role of Selma.
Henrik Engelbrecht is writing the libretto in English while Poul Ruders will compose the music - presumably with Bjork's original pieces as a foundation? There's no suggestion that Lars von Trier will be directly involved in any way.
The video to Bjork's Volta has been directed by Michel Ocelot, the very popular director of the Kikirou films. Feed posted a direct download link. Underwhelming? I certainly thought so.
After a YouTube session of Betty Hutton clips this weekend, I now read, sadly, that she has died. Just days after I was surprised to read she was still alive. She was 86.
One of Betty's biggest hits was Blow a Fuse, latterly known as It's Oh So Quiet and covered by Bjork. There's the odd tip of the hat to Hutton in the Bjork promo video, but it is largely lost in the rush to reference as many musicals as possible.
Annie Get Your Gun was Hutton's big movie role, tailored specifically to her talents when Judy Garland dropped out part way into filming. Comparing the two directly - a pair of Garland numbers are on the special edition DVD - has won Hutton a whole raft of favour.
Unusually for a toplining female star of musicals, Hutton's persona was more antic than erotic, based on energy, vivaciousness and pizazz rather than the pseudo-sweet sexualisation of many of her peers. And she could be funny. Honestly and genuinely funny.
Watch the clips yourself. Let Betty's song and dance do the talking.
