Terry Gilliam is set to cause a real stir in making his opera debut with Berlioz’s “The Damnation of Faust” at the English National Opera in London next year, as is Mike Figgis (“Internal Affairs,” “Timecode”) who’s going to be directing the rarely-performed “Lucrezia Borgia” by Donizetti
Berlioz’s opera centers on the titular Faust as he sells his soul to Mephistopheles, so there’s a direct parallel with Gilliam’s 2009 effort “Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus” which saw Tom Waits playing a Satanic figure named Dr. Nick. Gilliam clearly has pacts with the devil on his mind — but then again, making a film for the Weinstein Brothers will do that to you.
Gilliam’s films have always had an operatic quality to them, and we’d expect some opulent visuals in the production which opens on May 6th next year, and will run for ten performances. Acclaimed theater designers Hildegard Bechler and Katrina Lindsay will be collaborating with Gilliam.
Interestingly, ENA artistic director John Berry also adds that the pre-production on Gilliam’s play is going to be “a long process [as] he is making a film in the summer.” This seemingly confirms a number of reports in the Spanish media a few weeks ago which had noted Gilliam’s interest in shooting “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” later this summer.
The director visited the country in March with newly-found producing company Kanzaman Madrid working out deals and scouting locations with lensing to reportedly take place in the streets, squares and monuments of Valencia for four weeks starting in August before moving to the Alcázar of Segovia and its gardens in September. Other locations set to house Gilliam’s production include the Ciudad de la Luz film studios in Alicante and Toledo.
Production on ‘Don Quixote’ has been a long time coming for Gilliam after the previous attempts tragically and famously fell apart, as documented in “Lost In La Mancha.” This time around, Gilliam has Robert Duvall attached to play the titular role of Quixote previously held by Jean Rochefort with no actor has been announced for the lead role. Gilliam has previously hinted that he knows who the actor will be, wouldn’t reveal his identity, but said he would not be an “A-lister” nor Johnny Depp, who played the lead role in the aforementioned disastrous first attempt at ‘Quixote’ which never got off the ground.
In the last few years, opera directing seems to have become the hobby of choice for many film directors; the likes of Baz Luhrmann, Abbas Kiarostami, William Friedkin, David Cronenberg, Woody Allen and the late Anthony Minghella have all directed work in recent years, joining the likes of Sergei Eisenstein, Luschino Visconti, Roman Polanski, Franco Zeffirelli, and John Schlesinger in embracing the form.
Figgis’ production, which opens earlier, in January, focuses on a member of the infamous Borgia family, who ruled Venice in the 15th and 16th centuries. Figgis has frequently combined theater, music and film together, and we’ve heard rumors that his production will contain some kind of filmed element to it. He’ll be working with another top theater designer, Es Devlin, who also designed a recent tour by Kanye West.
While we’ve been disappointed in most of the recent work by both filmmakers, we’re excited about this; Gilliam’s films have always had an operatic quality to them, and we’d expect some opulent visuals to the production, while we imagine that Figgis will come up with something that’ll be a polar opposite, but should prove equally interesting. Booking for the season opens later in the year. — with additional reporting by Simon Dang