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OPERA

American film director to stage his first opera in Paris

Hollywood director James Gray is to stage his first opera in Paris in November.

Published: 25 March 2019 12:53 CET
American film director to stage his first opera in Paris
Director James Gray with actress Monica Bellucci at the Marrakesh Film Festival. Photo: AFP

The maker of The Yards, Little Odessa and The Immigrant is to direct  Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees.

French fashion designer Christian Lacroix will do the costumes for the starry production.

The theatre's director Michel Franck said it took him more than a year to convince New Yorker Gray to come on board.

“He is one of my favourite film directors and I read that opera was his passion and that he is always listening to it on his earphones,” Franck told AFP.

“I was hugely impressed by his knowledge of the repertoire when I met him,” he added.

“He is capable of singing whole passages from Janacek's From the House of the Dead — and not just from La Traviata and Carmen.”

(Actor Gerard Depardieu is also at the Theatre des Chanps-Elysees this season. Photo: AFP)

Gray is planning a modern-dress production set in the present, Franck said.

French film star Gerard Depardieu will perform his tribute to the French chanson legend Barbara in April 2020 in the other highlight of the theatre's 
season.

Choreographer Benjamin Millepied is also bringing his LA Dance Project.

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OPERA

A Masked Ball: Madrid opera forced to cancel show after protest over social distancing

Spain's main opera house, the Teatro Real in Madrid, defended itself Monday after it had to cancel a performance when a small group of spectators loudly protested against being seated too close to each other amid a spike in Covid-19 infections.

Published: 22 September 2020 11:23 CEST
A Masked Ball: Madrid opera forced to cancel show after protest over social distancing
View of the Teatro Real in Madrid. Photo: Claudia Schillinger/ Flickr

The performance of Giuseppe Verdi's “A Masked Ball” on Sunday night was called off after a “minority” of spectators repeatedly jeered and clapped despite being offered the chance to be relocated or get a refund for the value of their tickets, the theatre said in a statement.

Videos shared on social media by several spectators who were at the performance showed full rows in the upper sections where seats are cheaper, while in the pricier floor section many empty seats could be seen.

Clapping and calls of “suspension!” could be heard even after the actors tried to begin their performance.

The Teatro Real had “respected the health norms” put in place by the regional government of Madrid to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and “even reinforced them”, the chairman of the body which manages the theatre, Gregorio Marañon, told a news conference on Monday.

Attendance at the performance had been reduced to just 51.5 percent of the total, well below the  limit of 75 percent set by the regional government, he added.

The regional government does not require there to be an empty seat between spectators, but it does require there to be a distance of 1.5 metres (five feet) between people, or if this is not possible, that they wear face masks, which is mandatory at the theatre, Marañon said.

The Teatro Real, which celebrated its bicentenary in 2018, is studying “what measures we can take for those spectators who… clearly felt in an uncomfortable situation,” he added.

The incident comes as the regional government of Madrid has imposed a partial lockdown in several densely-populated, low income areas mainly in the south of the Spanish capital where virus infections are surging, sparking a debate about inequality and triggering protests in these neighbourhoods over the weekend before the new measures took effect on Monday.

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