An Inconvenient Truth: The Opera!
I swear, I couldn’t make this stuff up.
In the category of “stage to screen” I could probably somewhat justify Al Gore’s famous slideshow, An Inconvenient Truth. After all, it went on to become not just a book but also a Nobel-Peace-Prize winning movie. Well, ok, Mr. Gore got the prize, but it wasn’t for his work as V.P.
Turning It Up to Eleven
Now, however, it’s going the other way, as Giorgio Battistelli of Milan’s La Scala opera house is going to undertake to turn it into an opera, set to debut in 2011. Yes, that’s right, an opera about global warming.
Battistelli is no stranger to difficult tasks. Given an opera containing a cast clad all in underwear, wearing masks of prominent politicians and swimming in Iraqi oil, he was asked to “take out the satirical parts”, according to the Independent. He didn’t – but ended up with an opera that got a seven-minute ovation. Not too shabby.
I confess, while it seems ludicrous to me at first, I can see why it might work, and I can’t see someone of his stature taking on a project without a pretty amazing inspiration as to where it can go.
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