But a final question remains: Does Cobain, or Blake, still represent something meaningful in popular culture today-tortured genius, doomed rock star, style icon-or is he just a slogan on a shirt or the headline-grabbing hook for a new opera? Are his achievements burnished or compromised by asking this question? Is there any way of romanticizing him without commodifying him at the same time?

I think there was suspicion at the beginning, but it kind of gave way to excitement from all parties very quickly.” As Welde puts it: “They are all magicians!” And while I didn’t go into there with an agenda to blow it to smithereens, I just wanted to engage with the contemporary. “They’re all absolute masters at what they do.

“That building is full of absurdly talented people,” says Copson. The one thing I can’t stop wondering about, though, is what the seamstresses and costumiers that have worked at the Royal Opera House for decades must have thought when Demna’s floor-length padded parkas, gray sweatpants, and shredded denim were getting adjusted and tended to like the crystal-studded bodices of a prima ballerina.

Royal opera house