Annie Hall The Opera?

Woody Allen is, at this late stage in his career, embarking upon a new role: opera director.

Alongside Hollywood director William Friedkin (who has directed at an opera before) Allen will direct one part of a new production of Giacomo Puccini’s Il Trittico at Los Angeles Opera. Allen will make his operatic debut next year directing Gianni Schicchi, (the third part of Puccini's triptych) and Friedkin will take on the other two parts -- Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica. The production will open on September 6, 2008.

Domingo, Broad General Director of Los Angeles Opera (Broad General Director? The title makes him sound like a 400-pound military leader) says in the company press release that he's been pursuing Allen for four years.

Here's what Allen has to say on his new job: “I have no idea what I am doing but incompetence has never prevented me from plunging in with enthusiasm.”

I wonder how the collaboration will fare? Allen is a great musician and used to be a great storyteller. In recent years, though, his films have left much to be desired, with stringy narratives, mawkish characters and an old geezer's sensibility. But given that he won't be making up the plot, dialogue or music for his operatic debut, we might be in luck. Also, Gianni Schicchi is very funny. Set in medieval Florence, the opera depicts a farcical family squabble, as the survivors of a wealthy gentleman persuade Gianni Schicchi to pose as the deceased and rewrite his will in their favor. It sounds like the plot of one of Allen's movies.

If Allen's gig at L.A. Opera goes well, I'd like to see him turn one of his great films into opera. Manhattan, Might Aphrodite and Annie Hall would lend themselves very well to operatic treatment, I think.