Courtney Love to star in new experimental opera

Hole singer Courtney Love is to star in a new experimental opera next year.

The singer will take the lead role in a production of Todd Almond's Kansas City Choir Boy, which will premiere in New York next year.

Speaking about the role, Love told the New York Times: "I love the concept, and I'm loving the music. I'm playing it constantly. I'm looking to do things that are different. I just finished a rock tour of Australia, and it was great, but I've been doing that for a long time. I wanted to do something challenging."

Almond added that the show was about "a man and a woman in love in the Midwest But then the woman sees something on the horizon that makes her realise that she has a greater destiny, and she follows that."

He also further defined what he meant by opera and said that he wasn't talking about a traditional style, adding: "When I say 'opera'. I don't mean it's in an operatic style. I mean it in the sense that it's a group of songs that tell a story. I write musicals, I write plays and I write what I call opera, which I think of as a form that opens the minds of both the performers and the listeners."

The show will open in New York in January.