Howard Who?

Woody Allen to direct LA opera - Yahoo! News

Wood Allen is one of those guys who I admire for his classical music fandom. I mean, he commonly peppers his films with classical music excerpts. I especially remember two scenes of Mozart usage…one in Manhattan where two couples writhe uncomfortably on a balcony listening to Mozart’s Symphony #40, another in Annie Hall where Woody and Diane Keaton ride in a car to the joyous strings of Mozart’s Symphony #41. This is not even to mention the part in Annie Hall where Woody namedrops Mozart to win a cultural argument. Surely, this music must be cool by association.

And it’s probably not an accident that he loves it to this extent. After all, the man is an actual musician, playing clarinet a couple months ago with his jazz band at UCLA. Furthermore, the man is an intellectual who has made a living off of comedy that references academia and modernist thinking in general.

So the question remains if he can direct a Puccini opera for the Los Angeles Opera? I wouldn’t put it past him. The opera in question, Gianni Schicchi, is a comedy. And it is part of a triology, with the two operas being performed as well but directed by William Friedkin, another filmmaker whose films from the 70s set the world on fire.

Personally, I can’t wait for the preconcert talk.

O Mio Babbino Caro from Gianni Schicchi by Puccini - Maria Callas

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2007 at 4:52 am and is filed under Uncategorized, Classical Music, Movies, Film Music, Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.