Tiger King 'The Opera' premieres on TikTok

Netflix, together with the English National Opera, has announced the world's first operatic reimagining of Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness (season 1) ahead of the launch of Tiger King 2.

Available to view on the Netflix YouTube channel, the 'Tiger King TikTopera' has been composed and co-produced by the English National Opera and brought to the digital stage by Tiger King's biggest fans via their TikTok channels.

With some of TikTok's biggest stars cast in lead roles, Sophia Aurora, Hannah Lowther and recording artist Hellovicco – alongside X-Factor finalists Max and Harvey and BGT comedian Phil Green – each offers an operatic spin on the modern-day melodrama at the heart of Tiger King.

With music recorded live in London by the ENO's 40-person chorus and their award-winning orchestra, newly written lyrics have been set to the music of French composer Georges Bizet's 1875 masterpiece 'Carmen'.

Split into a rollercoaster five-act structure, each song covers the complex interconnected stories surrounding a cast of characters involved in the battle between Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin – following the twists, turns, reveals and revelations that made Tiger King one of the most-watched shows on the planet.

The idea was created by Hope & Glory with content production from the team at Grape Vine.

Stuart Murphy, CEO of the English National Opera, says: "Opera is an art form that deals best with epic themes - rival worlds, passionate love, carnal lusts and monstrous betrayal. In many ways, it's the art form that this story was made for. We are absolutely delighted to work with Netflix on Tiger King The Opera.

Tiger King had us all glued to our devices in lockdown as everyone waited to be uncaged. It's a modern-day mythic drama that was streamed straight into the living rooms of millions of us across the globe. The ENO was set up to do the same - epic stories, brilliantly told, to entertain as many people as possible.

We've pulled out all the stops with Netflix to bring to life an epic re-imaging of this timeless story for our social media age, and we hope people will love the results. As the curtain rises on the next stage of this enthralling tale, let's take our seats, sit forward and enjoy the 'TikTopera' as it spans the tragedy, the drama, the romance, the revelation at the heart of Tiger King's incredible story."

Hot off the press!

The results continue to roll in but at the time of writing, video views on individual creator videos currently smashing through 188K, 12.8K, 63.5K, 15.8K and 8K individually, getting close to 300,000 views in a matter of hours (and continuing).

YouTube views are hitting around 20,000 views on top of that too.

The media buzz has been intense, with a clean sweep of national, consumer and broadcasts taking this culture clash to a wide array of people including The Guardian, The Telegraph (print and online), The Independent and The I and again on Indy100.

It also featured in the likes of The Metro, print and online for The Times and The Times Online, print in The Daily Star, online on The Express and features on Classic FM and Radio X and broadcast pieces, in which they played the opera out on Heart and KISS radio and due to go live with an interview on Times Radio.