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TechnographWoody Allen makes opera directing debut in LA
By RONALD BLUM, The Associated Press
Posted: 9/8/08 Section: Diversions
He had just made his successful debut as an opera director Saturday, creating a hilarious and memorable production of "Gianni Schicchi," the third of the one-act presentations in Puccini's "Il Trittico." The Los Angeles Opera's opening-night audience at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion kept applauding, wanting to see the 72-year-old filmmaker join the cast and conductor James Conlon for the curtain call.
But Allen remained out of view, unwilling to come onstage because of shyness, according to the company.
With the music world celebrating December's 150th anniversary of Puccini's birth, director William Friedkin started the night with dark stagings of "Il Tabarro" and "Suor Angelica." Allen immediately brought laughter from the auditorium when he began "Gianni Schicchi" by having credits projected in black and white onto a movie screen. The names were nonsensical, such as Giuseppe Prosciutto, Aldo Melone and Vitello Tonato, to mention three of the more printable.
Then, when the madcap action unfolded, it was clear that he viewed the opera, which takes place in 1299, as an old Italian film. Santo Loquasto's sets, with Florence's Duomo in the background, were in black and white and gray. So were the costumes and the laundry clipped to clothing lines throughout. The only deviations from the color scheme were the singers' faces and a few yellow lamps.
A young boy, humorously played by precocious 9-year-old Sage Ryan, is cautioned not to play with a knife and then tries to make away with a beer. The owner of the house, Buoso Donati, has just died and his family is searching for his will - under the bed, under his body and even under his nightcap. Finally it is found - in a pot of pasta.
Once they learn he is donating his possessions to charity, they cook up a scheme to get the land and money for themselves. The oily Gianni Schicchi will impersonate the deceased and dictate a new will to a notary. The elegant baritone Thomas Allen, transformed with slick black hair and a thin villain's mustache, takes over - and of course assigns the best properties to himself.
But Allen remained out of view, unwilling to come onstage because of shyness, according to the company.
With the music world celebrating December's 150th anniversary of Puccini's birth, director William Friedkin started the night with dark stagings of "Il Tabarro" and "Suor Angelica." Allen immediately brought laughter from the auditorium when he began "Gianni Schicchi" by having credits projected in black and white onto a movie screen. The names were nonsensical, such as Giuseppe Prosciutto, Aldo Melone and Vitello Tonato, to mention three of the more printable.
Then, when the madcap action unfolded, it was clear that he viewed the opera, which takes place in 1299, as an old Italian film. Santo Loquasto's sets, with Florence's Duomo in the background, were in black and white and gray. So were the costumes and the laundry clipped to clothing lines throughout. The only deviations from the color scheme were the singers' faces and a few yellow lamps.
A young boy, humorously played by precocious 9-year-old Sage Ryan, is cautioned not to play with a knife and then tries to make away with a beer. The owner of the house, Buoso Donati, has just died and his family is searching for his will - under the bed, under his body and even under his nightcap. Finally it is found - in a pot of pasta.
Once they learn he is donating his possessions to charity, they cook up a scheme to get the land and money for themselves. The oily Gianni Schicchi will impersonate the deceased and dictate a new will to a notary. The elegant baritone Thomas Allen, transformed with slick black hair and a thin villain's mustache, takes over - and of course assigns the best properties to himself.
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