Corriere della Sera is reporting today that director William Friedkin pulled out of his commitment to direct that Scala production of the opera inspired by Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth", music by Giorgio Battistelli, libretto by J.D. McClatchy that will premiere on May 2011 (150th anniversary of Italy's independence).
Apparently, Friedkin has had problems with the libretto:
"I withdrew for artistic reasons, irreconcilable differences with McClatchy's libretto. This past September I received the libretto and I immediately called la Scala's Gaston Fournier (Artistic Consultant to Scala GM Stephane Lissner -- ed.) to state my negative reaction. I also did that with McClatchy and, via email, with Battistelli. Battistelli hoped to 'fix' somehow the libretto but I told him no, I couldn't work on [J.D. McClatchy] Sandy's libretto".
In October, Friedkin's agent, let it be known to la Scala that "under no condition whatsoever the director will accept to work on that libretto".
Friedkin again:
"Battistelli and Fournier then informed me that they felt they could indeed work on that libretto; professional differences were evident, so I decided to state again, in November, via my agent, that I have indeed withdrawn from this production for 'irreconcilable differences'".
Maybe Terry Gilliam, who pulled out of last year's Andrea Chenier -- later cancelled -- can take a crack at this apparently unworkable libretto? That'd be cool. Or maybe David Lynch?