L.A. Opera to produce "The Fly"
This is not a hallucination. This is not a joke. This is a dream pop-culture mashup:
Coming to the L.A. Opera this fall: “The Fly,” an opera with music by Howard Shore, libretto by David Henry Hwang, design by Dante Ferretti, conducted by Placido Domingo and directed by David Cronenberg.
I can barely contain my excitement, nor can I conceive of how insanely wonderful this production could be. If you’re familiar with the source material – Cronenberg’s brilliantly squicky 1986 movie with Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, you know it has all the requisite themes for great melodramatic opera: love, passion, betrayal and blood …
Add to that: music by Howard Shore, who’s written great movie scores over the past 10+ years including Lord of the Rings (sample, more samples), Ed Wood (sample). and The Cell (sample) not to mention half a dozen Cronenberg productions including “A History of Violence” and “Eastern Promises.”
Libretto by David Henry Hwang (responsible for the under-loved 1998 M. Butterfly that Cronenberg made into a 1993 movie.
Dante Ferretti has handled production design on a broad array of big-budget films, ranging from Gangs of New York and Interview with the Vampire to Il Trovatore and Sweeney Todd.
Placido Domingo is <a href=”http://www.google.com/search?q=placido+domingo+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=fireforesident genius.
And Cronenberg – well hell. Here’s the cast list with profiles.
Two questions: When do tickets go on sale? And how are they going to design a credible fly mask that Daniel Okulitch can sing through?
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Like ALIEN (1979), THE FLY (1986) is a classic science fiction horror movie. But a musical version of THE FLY????? You’ve got to be joking.
Not a musical version – opera, man. Think Faust. With pedipalps.
Wow. I figured this was a Markland post with this level of Geek Cred. Did you two arm wrestle for it?
He supplied the bait, I bit. I’m a huge, knuckle-dragging, drooling popcult geek. Can’t wait to see this thing.
Mack- Not only do you win for correctly distinguishing between a musical version and an opera version, you win *even more* for correctly using the term "pedipalps". (I’m not certain that houseflies have pedipalps per se- as I recall, they’re usually found on predators such as spiders- but clearly, Brundleflies are a unique case.)
Meh. Looks like they’re more like arachnid-gear than fly-gear.
I wouldn’t be too discouraged, Mack; judging by the link below, there’s definitely some pedipalp-esque action in the Brundlefly species. Unique case, and all that.
http://www.horrortalk.com/reviews/TheFly/fly_1.jpg
The movie played like an opera in the first place with the good guy who turns bad, and the bad guy who turns good, and the woman in the middle. perfect for an opera!
Hah! I have geek-cred! Thanks Beopenguin!
What’s it going to be called? M. Brundlefly?