Turning
a new page in his directorial book...
Woody Allen: opera director-to-be
Academy-award winning film director to make operatic debut directing Gianni
Schicchi in LA Opera's 2008-09 season opener - a new production of Puccini's
Il trittico
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LA Opera
has done what the Academy Awards could not do - seduce Woody Allen, self-proclaimed
California-phobe, to come to Los Angeles!
“I am delighted to announce that LA Opera will open its 2008/09 Season
with a new production of Giacomo Puccini’s Il Trittico, to be staged
by two Academy Award-winning film directors,” announced Plácido
Domingo, General Director of Los Angeles Opera. “The three operas that
make up Puccini’s unique ‘triptych’ will be split between
Woody Allen, who will make his operatic debut directing Gianni Schicchi,
and William Friedkin, who will return to LA Opera to direct Il Tabarro
and Suor Angelica. Music Director James Conlon will conduct, and
the production will be designed by Tony Award winner Santo Loquasto, with
lighting designed by Mark Jonathan.”
The production will open on September 6, 2008, to be followed on September
7 by LA Opera’s U.S. premiere of Howard Shore’s The Fly, directed
by David Cronenberg and conducted by Plácido Domingo.
“I’ve
seduced many a film director into directing opera," Mr. Domingo continued.
Indeed he has, starting with John Schlesinger and The Tales of Hoffmann
at London’s Covent Garden. At LA Opera he has brought in such Hollywood
notables as Bruce Beresford (Rigoletto), Maximillian Schell (Der
Rosenkavalier), Garry Marshall (The Grand Duchess) and as mentioned
above, William Friedkin (in the double- bill of Bluebeard’s Castle
and Gianni Schicchi).
Domingo's courtship of Woody Allen "takes the prize of the longest pursuit,
because LA Opera Chairman and CEO Marc Stern and I first started talking to
him some four years ago." Persistence obviously pays off.
“I have no idea what I am doing,” said Mr. Allen, “but incompetence
has never prevented me from plunging in with enthusiasm.”
Although this is a new page in his directorial book, Woody Allen is no
stranger to opera. As his fans know, he is perhaps the most musically
literate of all American film directors - music (and that includes opera,
classical music and of course his beloved jazz), being an important element
of his works, one to which he personally pays great attention. Outside of
jazz, the music he uses or makes reference to in his films runs the gamut
from Bach to Wagner. In his recent Oscar-nominated suspense film "Match
Point," for example, arias from Verdi's operas are almost ubiquitously
lurking in the background.
(CLICK HERE for a quiz that asks
you to match the musical work with the movie.)
To have Woody Allen, the master of comedy direct Puccini's only comic opera
is a masterful stroke. Gianni Schicchi touches on Allen's themes
- love, death, the pursuit of happiness and... money. Il triticco's
other Academy-Award-winning director, William Friedkin, said it best:
“Somewhere in the pantheon, I’m sure Puccini is smiling. To have
Woody Allen direct Gianni Schicchi is a match made in heaven."
Source:
LA Opera
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