The Second Mrs Kong is an opera in two acts, with music by Sir Harrison Birtwistle to a libretto by Russell Hoban.

Tom Cairns designed and directed the production, in collaboration with choreographer Aletta Collins.

[4] David Beard has examined in detail the relationship of various forms of images to the music and Birtwistle's and Hoban's collaboration.

[7] The setting is the World of Shadows, a realm of the dead where historical people and fictional characters can intermingle.

Pearl first learns of the existence of the mythical giant ape King Kong after she hears his voice through the mirror that is in the room where Vermeer is painting.

Later in the Act, Pearl is residing in a "stockbroker's high-tech penthouse", and at one point sees an excerpt from the 1933 film of King Kong on television.