Jade Goody the Opera?

At first, viewers gawped at her onscreen antics, which involved Jadeisms like believing ‘East Angular’ was abroad, Rio de Janeiro was a person and talk of Saddam Hussein, that well-known boxer.

Her catchphrase ‘am I minging?’ was born and her party trick was fitting her entire body through an elastic band. Love her or hate her, she was certainly entertaining.

Jade’s relationships were played out in magazines and a return to the Big Brother house as a celebrity led to a race row and hate mail.

Even her death was in the public spotlight, as we watched her become an inspiring fighter and loving mother as she battled cervical cancer.

But despite all that, I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the fact she has inspired an opera.

I suppose it guarantees publicity – and therefore an audience – for the two-night run of ‘and the Crowd (wept)’ as part of the ‘Tete a Tete’ opera festival in London in August.

And it’s surely no worse than Anna Nicole, Jerry Springer or Gaddafi the operas.

Opera certainly isn’t what it used to be. But that also applies to our concept of celebrity.

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