Elvis Costello working on opera

Elvis Costello is creating an opera based on Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen’s impossible romance with a Swedish woman.

“The Secret Arias” is based on songs written by Andersen for Jenny Lind, a soprano dubbed the “Swedish Nightingale,” whom the Dane pined for, despite her never returning his affections, said Henrik Engelbrecht, head of dramaturgy at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen.

The work will open in 2006 in the new opera house’s small experimental stage that can seat 200. Then “The Secret Arias” likely will go on an international tour, Engelbrecht said, and be released as a CD and DVD.