Opera novice Mike Figgis is taking charge of Lucrezia Borgia at the Eno. Trouser parts and Renaissance porn were part of a steep learning curve
Mike Figgis is about to make his debut as an opera director at English National Opera. But his production of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia is hardly the fulfilment of a dream for the 62-year-old Oscar-nominated director. "I was never an opera-goer growing up. I was a jazz musician. I'd go and see Miles Davis. It would never cross my mind to go to the opera. My only preconceptions about opera were based on clips I had seen, to be honest." He smiles sheepishly beneath his mop of hair. "I only went to my first opera three or four years ago, when my girlfriend took me to the Met in New York."
Figgis is the latest in a long line of Eno's recruits from the worlds...
Mike Figgis is about to make his debut as an opera director at English National Opera. But his production of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia is hardly the fulfilment of a dream for the 62-year-old Oscar-nominated director. "I was never an opera-goer growing up. I was a jazz musician. I'd go and see Miles Davis. It would never cross my mind to go to the opera. My only preconceptions about opera were based on clips I had seen, to be honest." He smiles sheepishly beneath his mop of hair. "I only went to my first opera three or four years ago, when my girlfriend took me to the Met in New York."
Figgis is the latest in a long line of Eno's recruits from the worlds...
- 1/21/2011
- by Tom Service
- The Guardian - Film News
Lights, camera, arias! Sell-out shows bring in new audiences and serious cash for leading opera houses
Tonight, most British cinema audiences will be settling down with a Coke and a carton of popcorn for the weekend's big movies: the latest in the Narnia franchise, perhaps, or Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in The Tourist.
But not all of them. In around 80 UK cinemas, audiences will instead be preparing themselves for a performance, beamed in live by satellite from New York's Metropolitan Opera, of Verdi's Don Carlos.
You'd be lucky to get a ticket though, despite the £25 price tag (reflecting the double cinema slot occupied by these often lengthy works). Tickets are sometimes snapped up in just two hours for a screening nine months away, according to Lyn Goleby, managing director of the independent cinema chain Picturehouse. "Opera in cinema is," she says, "a phenomenon."
The Royal Opera House, eager...
Tonight, most British cinema audiences will be settling down with a Coke and a carton of popcorn for the weekend's big movies: the latest in the Narnia franchise, perhaps, or Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in The Tourist.
But not all of them. In around 80 UK cinemas, audiences will instead be preparing themselves for a performance, beamed in live by satellite from New York's Metropolitan Opera, of Verdi's Don Carlos.
You'd be lucky to get a ticket though, despite the £25 price tag (reflecting the double cinema slot occupied by these often lengthy works). Tickets are sometimes snapped up in just two hours for a screening nine months away, according to Lyn Goleby, managing director of the independent cinema chain Picturehouse. "Opera in cinema is," she says, "a phenomenon."
The Royal Opera House, eager...
- 12/11/2010
- by Charlotte Higgins
- The Guardian - Film News
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