Riddle: A mother’s child, a father’s child, yet nobody’s son? Who am I?
I think of opera as the love child between classical music and theater. Though she can have attributes of either parent, to assign opera as exclusively her mother or father’s child would be to minimize her own potential and unique place in the world.
I can understand a lack of interest film makers likely have in directing a form of theater performance that is not based in realism. That being said, if there ever was an effort to apply cinematic principles to operatic performance, here is a list of operas I would love to see interpreted by and produced with the aesthetic of the following film directors.
Bong Joon Ho directs le nozze di Figaro, by W.A. Mozart
Peter Jackson directs The Cunning Little Vixen, by Leoš Janáček
David Lynch directs Postcard from Morocco, by Dominick Argento
Damien Chazelle directs Ariadne auf Naxos, by Richard Strauss
Jorgos Lanthimos directs The Nose, by Dmitri Shostakovich
Kenneth Branagh directs Fidelio, by Ludwig van Beethoven
Denis Villeneuve directs L’amour de loin, by Kaija Saariaho
Baz Luhrman directs Der Rosenkavalier, by Richard Strauss
Sofia Coppola directs Semele, by G.F. Händel
Alex Garland directs Bluebeard’s Castle, by Béla Bartók