Set to take a new shot

In director David Cronenberg's 1986 film The Fly, scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) commits a fatal error when he combines his own genes with those of a common housefly.

At Los Angeles Opera these days, another dicey blending of species is taking place: Film directors are mutating into opera directors — with, it is hoped, less alarming results.

At LA Opera, three prominent auteurs — Cronenberg, William Friedkin and Woody Allen — have been at work on productions that will kick off the company's 2008-2009 season. Friedkin and Allen share duties for Il Trittico, a trio of one-act operas by Puccini, in honour of the 150th anniversary of the Italian composer's birth. Friedkin, an LA Opera veteran, is directing Il Tabarro (The Cloak), the story of a tragic love triangle, and Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica), about a nun with a secret. Allen, staging an opera for the first time, is at the helm of Gianni Schicchi, a romantic comedy.

“I'm the average philistine at the opera who by the third act of Wagner's Siegfried is asleep,'' Allen confessed recently. “I'm not the greatest choice in the world for this but I'm doing my best and hopefully nobody will get hurt.''

As for Cronenberg, also an opera neophyte, the master of the macabre is directing The Fly, a new opera based on his 1986 film.

A co-production of LA Opera and the Theatre du Chatelet, Paris, the work was composed by Howard Shore, who has written the music for a raft of Cronenberg films, including The Fly, and whose other credits include the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Martin Scorsese's The Aviator.

More film links: Designer Santo Loquasto, who has worked with Allen, is responsible for the look of Il Trittico.

Playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) wrote the libretto for The Fly — Shore collaborated with Cronenberg and Hwang on the film version of M. Butterfly.

Filmdom's Dante Ferretti is the Fly set designer.

But don't expect The Fly to pay homage to the silver screen. “I wanted a theatrical experience. If I was going to do stage — and I've never done stage, never mind opera — I want that experience,'' Cronenberg says. “I don't want to muddy it with half-baked film-video stuff.''

“I found that I could direct the singers just as I would direct actors on film,'' he says.

Well, maybe not quite. Canadian bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch, 32, who is playing Brundle, says: “He was always asking, “What do you need? Can you do that and still sing?''

And we'd say, ‘Absolutely not!' And Howard would say, ‘This is an opera. Why is he upside down on wires?'''

Cronenberg, Okulitch recalls, responded with words to the effect that, although the position is not ideal for singing, from a staging standpoint it is the only way a human fly can crawl on the ceiling.

Because of its location in an industry town, LA Opera has frequently brought in film directors during its 21-year history.

Right now general manager Placido Domingo is wooing Tim Robbins and John Malkovich for future productions.

But Domingo says the fact that the company is enjoying “a very big Hollywood/LA Opera weekend'' is somewhat coincidental: The Fly was slated to have its world premiere in LA, not Paris, during the 2007-2008 season but plans were changed because of creative delays and the illness of LA Opera's chief operating officer, Edgar Baitzel.

Domingo, who will conduct the opera in Los Angeles, says he became enamoured of recruiting people from the cinema world when he worked both in film and on stage with Franco Zeffirelli, who moved fluidly among theatre, opera and film directing.

Domingo says so far LA Opera's collaborations between film and opera have been good ones.

Bringing in film talent, he insists, is not just a gimmick: “Movie directors see things in a different dimension — they bring some beautiful, wonderful, refreshing ideas.''

All three film directors say the most difficult thing about transitioning from film to the opera stage is letting go of the ability to make changes. The director can cut but not rewrite the music.

Shore says he has some freedom for last-minute musical tinkering on The Fly because, unlike Puccini, he is not dead. But Cronenberg, Allen and Friedkin agree that if a film director really wants to direct opera, he or she must be willing to give up the power of the auteur.

LA Opera music director James Conlon, who is conducting Il Trittico, puts it this way: “When they are making a movie, they can do anything they want with that creation.

An opera is not our creation — we are there to realise a work that pre-exists, sometimes at a distance of 100 years or 200 years. The greatest dramatist is the composer. That cannot be said too often: The key to understanding opera is to be found in the music.''

Risk and the muse