(Haneke's Cosi' for Teatro Real)
In the great tradition of Visconti and Chéreau, two film directors who've crossed seamlessly, lovingly into opera, we'll forever champion Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke, one of the greatest living film and opera directors, for his stark, slap-your-face sobriety and unflinching realism that translated perfectly in 2006 at his opera directorial debut with Mozart's melancholy Don Giovanni at the Opera Garnier (clip below).
Last night, his film Amour won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (nominated for five Oscars and lauded with a Palme d'Or last May), the tale of retired music teachers cut down by demoralizing #oldpeopleproblems but buoyed by the immortality of Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert's Impromptu in G flat major (here by the great Horowitz in Vienna).
Sure, we would have liked to catch Haneke's latest Mozart/Da Ponte project -- Cosi fan tutte that opened this past weekend at Teatro Real but 1. we were traipsing the slippery runways of Milan Fashion Week for Women's Wear Daily 2. Cambreling's on the podium 3. Haneke himself skipped the premiere!