TABLOID ARIA

When she died at the age of 39 from an accidental overdose, Anna Nicole Smith, whose career included stints as a stripper, a Playmate, a model, an actress, a reality-show celebrity, and Trimspa spokesperson, was the mother of a baby daughter, the widow of a nonagenarian billionaire, and easy prey for the tabloids. Now her bizarre rise to fame and tragic end is the subject of the opera Anna Nicole by British composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and librettist Richard Thomas (co-creator of Jerry Springer: The Opera), which premiered in 2011 at the Royal Opera House in London.

Mondays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Starts: Sept. 17. Continues through Sept. 28, 2013