Cooler but still well above normal this week

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If you missed yesterday's All Things Considered, I urge you to go back and take a listen to the story on "

It's an opera that takes on the tragic end of Britney Spears, imagining her final hours of life, as Justin Timberlake returns to try and win her love one last time.

Britney Spears? Justin Timberlake? You're probably asking how this story made it to public radio airwaves. But what makes this opera so cool is not just the transformation of pop icons into tragic stage figures, but the metamorphosis of their high-energy music into high-drama. Composer Jacob Cooper slows down Spears' and Timberlake's pop hits into something much more nuanced, dark and compelling. As reporter Claire Happel writes, "Phrases like 'Hit me baby one more time' took on an entirely different and more weighted meaning."

You can see the Timberbrit video to the song "Worst Fantasy" 

Arts and Culture

State of the Arts Blog

Marianne Combs

Author

The opera "Timberbrit" takes on the imagined tragic end of Britney Spears, slowing down her music to reveal something much darker, and more compelling.

Timberbrit: play it again, but slower

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