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Hollywood's James Gray to direct first opera in Paris
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US director and president of the jury James Gray (R) and guest attend a dinner at the Es Saadi Palace during the 17th Marrakech International Film Festival on December 7, 2018 in Marrakech, Morocco. (AFP/Fadel Senna)
Hollywood director James Gray is to stage his first opera in Paris in November.
The maker of The Yards, Little Odessa and The Immigrant is to direct Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees.
French fashion designer Christian Lacroix will do the costumes for the starry production.
The theater's director Michel Franck said it took him more than a year to convince New Yorker Gray to come on board.
"He is one of my favorite film directors and I read that opera was his passion and that he is always listening to it on his earphones," Franck told AFP.
Read also: Back stage, Paris Opera keeps venerable crafts alive
"I was hugely impressed by his knowledge of the repertoire when I met him," he added.
"He is capable of singing whole passages from Janacek's From the House of the Dead -- and not just from La Traviata and Carmen."
Gray is planning a modern-dress production set in the present, Franck said.
French film star Gerard Depardieu will perform his tribute to the French chanson legend Barbara in April 2020 in the other highlight of the theater's season. Choreographer Benjamin Millepied is also bringing his L.A. Dance Project.
