The most intriguing story of the day, at least for music-loving environmentalists like myself, is that the storied La Scala opera house in Milan has commissioned an opera based on Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.
Actually, La Scala's management announced as early as last May that it had engaged the composer Giorgio Battistelli to turn Gore's documentary into an opera. The reason it hit the wires today is that William Friedken (director of The French Connection and The Exorcist) has resigned as director for the production, claiming “irreconcilable creative differences” with the poet J. D. McClatchy, who is writing the libretto.
But, according to today's New York Times, composer, Giorgio Battistelli ". . . told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that Mr. Friedkin left “for personal, not artistic reasons,” and criticized the director for his use of special effects in the production, saying, “Opera isn’t Hollywood.”
The opera is scheduled to have its premiere at La Scala on May 11, 2011. I didn't even know Al Gore could sing.
