Los Angeles based arts writer James C. Taylor spoke with opera and theater director, Francesca Zambello, about her current projects in Asia and shrinking arts funding. La Zambello/a made news last month after she was appointed as General & Artistic Director of Glimmerglass Opera effective September 2010. She the director behind that iconic Alfano Cyrano (that O.C. caught at La Scala with Radvanovsky and Domingo) and one of our favorite Carmen productions -- although with a cast of Antonacci, Kaufmann, D'Arcangelo, and Pappano it's hard to go wrong.