An Inconvenient Opera

I have never seen and have no opinions regarding Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth, but this seems a bit much.

La Scala in Milan has commissioned a musical version of An Inconvenient Truth, the apocalyptic eco-documentary presented by Al Gore, the former American vice-president.

Gore will be replaced on stage by a cast of tenors and at least one soprano as the story of man-made climate change is told. The makers believe this format will be more suited to the 230-year-old opera house than the graph-heavy lectures given by Gore in his Oscar-winning 2006 film.

Hmmm....opera singers better than graph-heavy lectures for this.....I suppose that's true, in the same way a hammer is a more suitable tool than a socket wrench if you wish to pound nails into your toes.

The music is being written by Giorgio Battistelli, whose past operas include works based on the Frankenstein story and on the writings of Jules Verne. “Opera makes you reflect. Artists make you see things differently,” he said. “When we see a painting by Francis Bacon or a film by Sydney Pollack, we get a very precise idea of the problems of our century.”

“I thought it could be a good idea to deal on this important occasion with a subject that involves not only Italy but the world,” Battistelli, 55, added. “It will be about the tragedy of our present situation. It is a great challenge to write an opera on such an unusual subject. It is certainly not the story of Romeo and Juliet.”

Considering both Romeo and Juliet ended up dead, the difference may not be as pronounced as he thinks.