Filmmaker Sofia Coppola to Direct Her First Opera in Montpellier

Classic Arts News Filmmaker Sofia Coppola to Direct Her First Opera in Montpellier

Feb 09, 2007

Sofia Coppola will join the ranks of filmmakers who have recently turned to opera. The 35-year-old director, whose films include Lost in Translation (2003) and Marie Antoinette (2006), will stage a production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut, starring Roberto Alagna, at the Op_ra de Montpellier during the 2009-10 season.

The announcement was made at a press event for the 2007 Festival de Radio France de Montpellier, which is directed by Ren_ Koering, who is also music director at the Op_ra de Montpellier.

The Coppola family will be in the spotlight in Montpellier this summer as well: on July 19, l'Orchestre national de Montpellier will perform music from the films The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, composed by Carmine Coppola, the father of Francis Ford (and grandfather of Sofia). That concert will also feature Act IV of Manon Lescaut, with Alagna as the Chevalier des Grieux.