Sofia Coppola to stage first opera: "Manon Lescaut"

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2007

PARIS (AFP) — US film-maker Sofia Coppola is to stage her first opera, Puccini's romantic tragedy "Manon Lescaut", at the Montpellier Opera house in southern France during its 2009-2010 season.

Coppola's maiden try at opera, which will include directing sensitive French tenor Robert Alagna, responsible for a bundle of headaches at Milan's La Scala late last year, was announced Wednesday by the Montpellier Opera authorities.

In fact the entire Coppola family is to be feted by the southern French city next July.

A music festival from July 11 to 28, run by Rene Koering who heads the Opera, is to feature a special Francis Ford Coppola Day on July 19, with the city orchestra playing music from his movies "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now", written by his late...