Faith No More’s keyboardist, Roddy Bottum, has developed an opera that will be showing as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the Summerhall venue throughout the month of August. The show is called Sasquatch, The Opera, and the Summerhall residency will be its first full-length debut, complete with a full cast and live backing band.

The opera is described as “A dark and tragic love tale based on the fable of Sasquatch, the elusive man-beast who stalks the forest,” according to the press release. The premise involves a hillbilly family who profit off of selling the story of Sasquatch, until they come across the real monster and commence a “drug-fueled, surreal and provocative outing.”

Bottum largely came up with the idea while reflecting about his own life and experiences as the first openly gay man in the world of rock and roll.

“The impetus for my opera is a theme I’m particularly fond of – that of the misunderstood monster. I reference the Elephant Man, Frankenstein, King Kong and a 100lb four-year-old I once saw on Jerry Springer as characters of inspiration,” Bottum stated.

Bottum joined Faith No More in 1981 and stayed throughout its disbanding in 1998. He is also known for co-founding Imperial Teen in the mid-‘90s before rejoining Faith No More for a reunion tour in 2015. Surrounding the tour, the band also released their 7^th studio album, Sol Invictus. After his musical career and prior to Sasquatch, Bottum found his way into the world of film and TV scoring, composing the music for the film Adam & Steve, as well as What Goes Up, Kabluey, Gigantic and Hit So Hard. Sasquatch will be the first time he’s taken his musical talents to the stage.

The hour-long show is suitable for all ages, and tickets are available online. It will be showing from August 4 to the 27^th as part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland that often occurs for almost a month over the summer. In addition to opera, this year’s festival also includes comedy, cabaret, children’s, dance, exhibits, spoken word and theater. You can find more information on the Fringe website.

Watch the video of Faith No More reuniting last year in West Hollywood, or take a look back at the band’s early years when they performed “We Care A Lot” in 1986.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat