Florence opens a Franco Zeffirelli museum
mainThe venerable director, 94 and undimmed, is to be celebrated in the Centro Internazionale per le Arti dello Spettacolo Franco Zeffirelli, just behind the Palazzo Vecchio.
Full story here.
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A house now of the wrong kind of worship.
Gaudy and gross. Will Trump be attending per chance? Surely he approves of FZ’s elephantine extravaganzas.
Some contemporary opera directors cannot read music and are proud of their ignorance and disdain of opera. Trump belongs with them.
Except that Trump prefers women; especially one with a university degree, six languages and a gorgeous face and body!!
How is sexual orientation relevant in this context? Also, the infamous Access Hollywood recording was taped eight months after Trump’s wedding to Melania Knaus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_and_Billy_Bush_recording
I take Zeffirelli and Otto Schenk any day. So glad a lot of their work has been captured for posterity.
How can anyone resist this Boheme?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76o5q4zhjRk
Say what you want about Zeffirelli, but he really knew and loved opera.
He knew (knows) Italian opera of the 19th – early 20th Century the way Italians traditionally enjoyed it. Outside of that (large) niche, he’s very questionable. Opera also includes 20th Century and contemporary works, baroque, German, Slavic repertoire, etc. Not to mention the modern theatrical language and theatrical performance practice that he had no clue about.
Even in the slice of the repertory he kept producing over and over, he declined into a kitschy decorator, abandoning meaningful direction to fuss over the fabrics, animals, and supernumeraries of budget-busting extravaganzas. Let the cast flail about on their own; these operas were not about characters, after all, they were about his hunger for scenery applause.
His ultimate placement will be as the Cecil B. DeMille of opera production. Remembered, maybe even “significant,” but far down any reasonable list of his medium’s great directors.
This NYT article on Zeffirelli’s 1984 Tosca rehearsals describes the total opposite of what you are describing.
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/27/arts/zeffirelli-in-rehearsal-is-a-one-man-tosca.html
Oh Kleiber!!! Yes, it’s a wonderful production.