The murder of former Russian security officer Aleksandr Litvinenko has been turned into a two-act opera, its composer announced in London on February 24.
Anthony Bolton said it took him three years to complete The Life And Death Of Alexander Litvinenko.
The former fund manager told journalists that the story of Litvinenko, whose life ended in 2006 after radioactive poisoning allegedly at the hands of his former colleagues, "has power, politics, betrayal, love, [and] jeopardy."
Each act is an hour long and the opera is accompanied by a full chorus and a 52-piece orchestra. The opera contains flashbacks, flash-forwards, and audio-visual footage.
Litvinenko was a former officer in Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).
He fled in 1999 after revealing an alleged plan by the FSB to kill tycoon Boris Berezovsky.
Berezovsky had been prominent among the group of Russian businessmen known as the oligarchs, who grew rich from the privatization of state assets following the collapse of Soviet communism.
As a Kremlin insider under former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Berezovsky helped current President Vladimir Putin rise to succeed his predecessor in 2000.
But when Putin moved to curb the political powers of the oligarchs, Berezovsky left Russia for self-imposed exile in Britain, where he was granted political asylum in 2003. From there, his criticism of Putin grew.
In 2006, Putin, a former Soviet KGB officer who once headed the FSB, signed a law authorizing security agencies to carry out targeted assassinations abroad.
The same year, Litvinenko was killed in London.
In January 2016, British Judge Robert Owen, who led an inquiry into Litvinenko's death, said it was probable that Putin had approved the operation.
Owen said he was certain Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, two Russians whom British police identified as the primary suspects, killed Litvinenko by placing a lethal dose of polonium-210 in his tea during a meeting on November 1, 2006.
Litvinenko died several days later.
Both men deny any involvement in Litvinenko's death.
However, British investigators found traces of polonium-210 in hotels, restaurants, and aircraft used by Lugovoi.
Lugovoi was reportedly treated for radiation poisoning in Moscow in December 2006. A former Soviet KGB agent, he was elected a member of the Russian State Duma in 2007.
Putin awarded him a state medal "for services to the fatherland" in 2015.
Berezovsky was found dead at his ex-wife's home near London in March 2013.
