Opera Chic

Haneke's Full of Win

(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!

Michael Haneke Wins (Another) Palme d'Or @ Cannes Film Festival

Film and opera director Michael Haneke, simply one of the greatest living directors, just grabbed his well-deserved Palme d'Or for his new film, "Amour", trailer above with Schubert's Impromptu in G flat major. The maestro managed to lure Jean-Louis Trintignant, 81, out of retirement. Trintignant's costar? Oh, it's Emmanuelle Riva -- a.k.a "She" from "Hiroshima Mon Amour".

Haneke's words of wisdom: "Within a dialog you have to find the right emotions. It's like an opera in that sense."

Here's Haneke's Don Giovanni in Paris:

And here's Horowitz playing the Schubert piece in Vienna:

Teatro Real gets Director de escena Michael Haneke for 2012-13

Madrid's Teatro Real, under the cheese fist of Artistic Director Gerard Mortier, just announced its 2012-13 season and among the gems is a new production of Mozart's Così fan tutte directed by Michael Haneke. The only bad news that Cambreling is conducting seven of the ten replications. Can't have it all, OC, can't have it all.

Other standouts for OC include Saverio Mercadante's La rappresaglia conducted by Muti and his Cherubini kids; Wozzeck starring Simon Keenlyside in the title role; Daniel Catán's Il Postino with the Domingo/Gallardo-Domas duo; and Juan Diego Flórez gets Bizet in Les pêcheurs de perles.

Other operas include: Boris Godunov, Il prigioniero/Suor Angelica, Macbeth, The Perfect American, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Moses und Aron, Roberto Devereux and Parsifal.

Film Scholar Peter Brunette Dies At 66

Peter Brunette, author of excellent studies about Michael Haneke (the first complete study on the Austrian theater and opera and film director's work), Wong Kar-wai, Roberto Rossellini and Michelangelo Antonioni, passed away in Taormina, Italy, where he was taking part to the Film Festival. He was 66.

Prof. Brunette was working on a Visconti book.

Abbado & Haneke's "Lulu"? Yes, Please!

Claudio Abbado, in the latest issue of the Italian music magazine Classic Voice -- the story is not online -- anticipates his latest project: the 76-year old Milanese maestro, a Michael Haneke fan, was so impressed by the Austrian director's film, The White Ribbon, that he's thinking of a future "Lulu"... conducted by Abbado and directed by Haneke (Haneke directed in 2006 a "Don Giovanni" in Paris sadly conducted by Sylvain Cambreling, probably the worst professional conductor who ever appeared in first-rate venues).

The project's still in its infancy, but the most astonishing part of the interview is that Abbado, who'll come back to la Scala this coming summer after a long absence (he'll conduct the Scala orchestra in Mahler's Second), does not deny that he could even conduct this production at la Scala.

As of today, this seems to be little more than an idea, but quite obviously, an Abbado/Haneke production of Lulu at la Scala would be the most exciting opera production since... the Boulez/Chereau Ring?

Michael Haneke, Film and Opera Director, Wins The Palme d'Or @ Festival de Cannes For "The White Ribbon"

Michael Haneke, Austrian maestro of cinema and the stage, who not only gave us some of the most unsettling films of the last 20 years (he usually wishes his audience "a disturbing evening", and bless him for that) but has also directed "Don Giovanni" for the Opéra de Paris, has just won the Palme d'Or at the Festival de Cannes for "The White Ribbon".

It happened, like, seconds ago. (Opera Chic's favorite by him is probably, "Caché", but it's hard to choose).

Oh, and by the way, Haneke also created (with Isabelle Huppert, who presided the Cannes jury this year, conflict of interest galore) the kinkiest piano teacher in history, by far.

Here's Haneke the musical man:

A very short scene from the Palme d'Or film, after the jump.

Michael Haneke: What He Really Wanted Was To Play The Piano

“There’s nothing worse than a moderately talented musician.”

Film and opera director and former aspiring pianist, that genius creepykinz of Michael Haneke, conquers America.