NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – New York City is the “natural home” for an opera about Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 trial in Manhattan, the opera’s creator said.
Conor Mitchell, director of the Belfast Ensemble, told the New York Post that “The Trial of Harvey Weinstein: An Opera” could eventually come to the Big Apple.
The opera is currently in production in Northern Ireland, where rehearsals are set to begin ahead of the Belfast International Arts Festival in October, according to the report.
Mitchell said no one would be playing Weinstein in the opera. Instead, he’s looking to capture “the effect of (Weinstein’s) actions on other people.”
“I think one of the big theatrical experiments is what happens when Harvey Weinstein’s self impact statement is sung by the women who are impacted by his behavior,” Mitchell told the Post.
Weinstein accuser Hayley Gripp expressed support for the opera to the Post, while attorney Gloria Allred, who represented three women who testified at Weinstein's rape trial, said she’d also support the production “if they do obtain the consent of the victims whom they plan to portray.”
Weinstein attorney Imran H. Ansari told the Post: “Well, they may have to produce a second act based on my client’s appeal as to whether his trial was a fair one.”
Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year sentence for a rape conviction at a state prison near Buffalo.
Weinstein is appealing the verdict that he raped an aspiring actress in 2013 in a Manhattan hotel room and forcibly performed oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 at his Manhattan apartment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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