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Woody Allen to team with Placido Domingo in Madrid

Thomas Allen, in bed, performed the title role in Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi" when the Woody Allen-directed production was presented at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 2008.
(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
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Woody Allen will team with tenor Plácido Domingo in a revival of the director’s Los Angeles Opera production of “Gianni Schicchi” that will be produced in Madrid. The production will be part of the Teatro Real’s 2014-15 season, which was announced this week.

Allen first staged the short Puccini opera in L.A. in 2008. His staging was an homage to black-and-white Italian cinema from the 1940s and ‘50s. Domingo, who didn’t star in the L.A. production, will play the title role in Madrid.

Teatro Real will produce “Gianni Schicchi” on a double bill with “Goyescas” by composer Enrique Granados, directed by José Luis Gómez. The double bill will begin June 30, 2015.

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Allen’s production of “Schicchi” marked the first time the filmmaker directed an opera. When it debuted in L.A., the opera was performed as part of Puccini’s “Il Trittico,” which also consists of “Il Tabarro” and “Suor Angelica.” (William Friedkin directed the other two operas.)

In his review of the production, Times music critic Mark Swed wrote that Allen “manages to be both irreverent and absolutely true to the music and the spirit of the work.”

At the 2008 opening at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Allen opted not to appear at the curtain call with cast members and conductor James Conlon at the end of the performance. The director’s production of “Schicchi” has also traveled to Spoleto, Italy.

Allen’s next projects include his new movie, “Magic in the Moonlight,” starring Emma Stone, and his Broadway musical version of his movie “Bullets Over Broadway,” which is set to open April 10 at the St. James Theater in New York.

ALSO:

Opera review: ‘Il Trittico,’ the Los Angeles Opera

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Woody Allen’s production of ‘Gianni Schicchi’ travels to Spoleto

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