|
|
本帖最後由 Melancholy 於 2019-7-7 05:45 編輯
4 z. z: W# o: n/ N+ m( @: n M2 I" N% {" A! ]0 M* A0 J- ~6 @6 @
$ b7 T3 z( y9 K+ G! tNews > Obituaries% h* T5 c! O5 V3 \, o" Z
Franco Zeffirelli: Film and opera director who revelled in the lavish and theatrical9 a: n8 _" s! D! n) P! @% N
The last of Italy’s post-war cinema giants, Zeffirelli worked with many of the greatest stars of the 20th century& T) Z$ d1 ?$ r0 x2 ?; G% ]
Tom Vallance- P# L% S0 O+ C0 _$ ?2 S5 x9 b. }
Saturday 15 June 2019 19:15
. m \) F) ~2 B5 l {. j% w9 N* A; q3 l
& ~7 `) ~2 J6 ?- M" }; ]0 ~" `
His best films were either Shakespearean or operatic ones, including ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ ( Alamy )+ b0 K* _% w# B9 q5 [
' w8 i) t( z; A9 M/ y* z$ f
Franco Zeffirelli, who described his style as “lavish in scale and unashamedly theatrical”, was one of the most influential, flamboyant and controversial designer-directors of the 20th century. His Florentine background and love of the Renaissance permeated his diverse work, which encompassed theatre, cinema and his greatest love, opera.' k7 a* o# P2 v
4 |/ h7 j! {$ r- a3 qInitially an actor, then designer of sets and costumes, Zeffirelli – who has died aged 96 – confounded his mentor and lover Luchino Visconti by successfully becoming a prolific director who triumphed at La Scala, Milan, with his first operatic production, then stunned Covent Garden with his vivid staging of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. His Shakespearean productions at the Old Vic included a legendary version of Romeo and Juliet with Judi Dench, and a rapturously received Much Ado About Nothing with Maggie Smith, Albert Finney and Robert Stephens.
8 H/ Y4 Y& p/ |/ c1 p, s# \# g# P! M- ]: Z3 _
His best films were either Shakespearean or operatic ones, and included The Taming of the Shrew with Taylor and Burton, a Romeo and Juliet with two teenage unknowns, and Hamlet with Mel Gibson – plus a sumptuous film of La Traviata and a sweepingly dramatic, though drastically reshaped and cut, version of Verdi’s Otello with Placido Domingo. The treasured Covent Garden productions of Lucia di Lammermoor with Joan Sutherland and Tosca with Maria Callas were his work, and he created one of the most lavish opera productions ever seen with his Turandot at the Metropolitan.0 l# P( Q6 i9 _; O1 }, A
# F8 c- j! D2 MOn television his epic production Jesus of Nazareth has become a worldwide staple. He worked with both Olivier and Gielgud, and he gathered together an all-star cast for his film Tea With Mussolini, loosely based on his own childhood memories of the expatriate British ladies in Italy who helped raise him just before the Second World War. He also fought with the Italian resistance during the conflict, found God when he was nearly killed in a car accident with Gina Lollobrigida, and since 1960 had been heavily involved in right-wing politics, eventually becoming a member of the Italian senate, representing the Forza Italia party in 1996.
2 b& Q# F' Q, S: T+ Z* |: a2 Q
' Q& a+ j8 M6 F( i' N1 ZBorn out of wedlock in Florence, Italy in 1923, his surname was the result of an accident. Since his father would not acknowledge him, and his mother was married, he had to be given an invented name and his mother chose Zeffiretti, after the “little breezes” of an aria in Cosi Fan Tutte, but it was misspelt in the register as Zeffirelli. He was raised by a peasant woman for two years, then after his mother was widowed she took him into her family, but her death when Zeffirelli was six years old resulted in his being passed to his father’s cousin, Aunt Lide.- a( _! `2 }/ M1 s
' ?0 M+ X# l. c+ [, {His initial ambition was to be an architect, but Lide’s lover Gustavo was an amateur baritone, and he introduced the boy to opera and the cinema, both of which were to be life-long passions. He later described his reaction to his first opera, Die Walkure, as “hardly a refined appreciation, more like a child of today gawping at Star Wars”.
- t7 U5 p' h9 k8 Y) n" E" }; [+ R* G" t
He had his first real taste of theatre when, while fighting with the partisans in the Second World War, he met the music and ballet expert Richard Buckle and helped him stage a troop show. Seeing Olivier’s film of Henry V chrystallised Zeffirelli’s ambition. He recalled: “I knew then what I was going to do. Architecture was not for me; it had to be the stage. I wanted to do something like the production I was witnessing.”
) y; ?9 m T/ n2 `; `0 H/ P
; Z6 ? @. i3 M7 b6 l9 x* C$ d5 z: L
! h% E+ g, b3 }/ a; J$ b6 yfranco-zafrelli-2.jpg
& i/ v: q8 U0 K% oWith Cher on the set of the film ‘Tea With Mussolini’, 1999 (Alamy)
5 i% e! L& K9 v2 t7 }8 T. E6 h) U& v+ p4 n
After the war, he was working as an assistant scenic painter when he met the man he described as “probably the single most important person I have ever known”, the director Luchino Visconti. On their first meeting backstage he told Visconti that he was an actor, to which Visconti replied: “So you should be, with your looks.”
+ N% _6 r8 c+ z8 f) h
2 A( J% P( P) W0 VVisconti gave the youth small parts in his stage productions of Crime and Punishment (1946) and Eurydice (1947), and he made his screen debut in Luigi Zampa’s L’Onorevole Angelina (1947) starring Anna Magnani, after which Visconti used Zeffirelli and Francesco Rosi as his assistants on his film La Terra Trema (1948), filmed on location with a cast of Sicilian fishermen, and distinguished by its superb photography. Said Zeffirelli: “This is my main debt to Luchino in filmmaking: his passionate attention to detail. Everything was always researched to a point far beyond the needs of the actual scene. You immersed yourself in the period, the place, its culture, so that even though the audience might not take in every detail they would be absolutely convinced of its essential ‘rightness’.”
/ G- i8 l5 `7 A3 K: x! \! C
% B- b3 o6 h( ?: Q+ e0 PFor a production of As You Like It (1948) Visconti hired Salvador Dali as designer but, when the surrealist’s plans proved impractical, Visconti asked Zeffirelli to help out. He then gave Zeffirelli the first work for which he was independently credited, as designer of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (1949).
" a' f' l; q h0 U" \- @' D/ s+ e6 h5 c0 b# ^, P1 f2 v* C
Visconti and Zeffirelli were now living together in Rome, but worked separately for a spell before reuniting for the film Bellissima (1951) starring Anna Magnani, on which Zeffirelli again served as an assistant. After working briefly with Rossellini and Antonioni, he designed one of Visconti’s greatest theatrical triumphs, a production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters (1952), and worked as his assistant on the film Senso (1954), but the often stormy relationship of the two men was coming to an end.+ C. X- O4 ~* \* \) A6 _
" I, X t$ e( J0 v) V
When Zeffirelli was asked to design a production of Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri at La Scala, he saw it as an opportunity to break with the world of Roman theatre. With its cast clad mainly in light blues and whites, the sunny production of 1953 was rapturously received and the manager of La Scala, Antonio Ghiringhelli, decided to follow it with La Cenerentola (1954) with the same creative team.
$ p" I9 `2 H7 n. P9 A* C9 ^% c4 @; L
& W1 V- L# Y( V3 R% l" X6 |' TBut director Corrado Pavolini had fallen ill, and Zeffirelli, with the backing of Simionato, asked if he could be both director and designer. The result was another great success, and the director’s first experience of handling a large chorus. 1 S" m: L x9 \4 M3 ]# d1 p: Z; ^8 s
7 p0 d4 q8 ?/ h
Zeffirelli was immediately asked to direct two productions the following season, Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore and Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia (both 1955). He was also told that Maria Callas wanted to sing Donna Fiorilla in the Rossini and had specifically asked that he should direct it.
' |& R. W: D5 ?$ B8 F
+ F, B0 j' @/ Y$ y5 _. l5 ZZeffirelli had first met Callas when As You Like It had been running in Rome at the same time as Parsifal, in which Callas sang the role of Kundry. Tullio Serafin, who was a major influence on Zeffirelli, introduced both him and Visconti to “this very plump Greek-American girl with a terrible New York whine allied to a rather prim, matronly manner. She sounded awful and looked worse.” Then she had sung, and Zefirelli had been entranced. “I followed her to Florence to see her Traviata and hung around her dressing room like a lovesick boy,” he recalled.: B6 @+ |0 @+ O
% Q( X9 _1 Y+ q4 d- u' [9 a: vZeffirelli would shortly realise his longstanding ambition to direct a film. Camping (1957) was a modest, sentimental story of two young lovers on a motorcycle, but the public liked it. He was then called back to Dallas, Texas, to stage La Traviata for Callas, and succeeded in eclipsing Visconti’s previous staging with an audaciously cinematic production, using multiple sets and dispensing entirely with the interval between the second and third acts.2 e( Y# Q7 d3 V* `
" a3 ]0 {) o$ u4 ~$ P8 V/ |1 \3 A: W) V- o- D+ l
Zeffirelli with Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting on the set of his breakthrough film, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, 1968 (Alamy)3 k$ F* @/ `3 S4 L- P" O F
( h* O8 M8 Q/ U0 x
At the end of 1959 Zeffirelli was invited back to Covent Garden to create new productions of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, which were to prompt the Old Vic to ask him to direct Romeo and Juliet, with the particular request that he reproduce the Mediterranean feeling of his opera productions. For this Zeffirelli was determined to use a truly youthful leading pair and cast two young players starting out, Judi Dench and John Stride. “Judi was small and doll-like and looked even younger than her age, just the way I’d always imagined Juliet should be,” he said. The production, so different from all previous accounts of Shakespeare’s tragedy – the director even replaced the balcony with battlements – was loathed by London’s theatre critics next day, who condemned the acting, the sets and the direction. But the following Sunday London’s most respected critic, Kenneth Tynan, called it “a revelation, even perhaps a revolution ... The Vic has done nothing better for a decade.” Romeo and Juliet immediately became a sell-out and extended the length of its season.
/ K7 ?) U7 {. q, k, g" u H1 [0 ^! g7 h. t
The following year, 1961, Zeffirelli directed Fastaff at Covent Garden, then made his debut at Glyndebourne with L’Elisir d’amore. In Dallas, he staged a controversial Don Giovanni with Joan Sutherland and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, setting the opera in the burnt-out aftermath of a catastrophe, then returned to England to create an Othello for the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford. It turned out disastrously. Wanting an elegant, cultured Othello, he cast John Gielgud, with young Ian Bannen as Iago. “Whatever chemistry makes a director and his actors work was missing with us three ... Gielgud and Bannen were like oil and water and somehow Gielgud and I never seemed to react together.” A few months later the Old Vic Romeo and Juliet opened in New York and was a critical and commercial triumph, with Zeffirelli receiving a special Tony Award for design and direction.+ w% [! `6 p, \7 H2 ?8 [
- ?: k9 M( m8 H4 b. `* a+ RIn 1967 he directed his first major film, The Taming of the Shrew (1967), starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and described by one critic as “a mixture of classical Shakespeare, the Marx brothers and a Renaissance painting”. It was a great success, and Zeffirelli followed it with Romeo and Juliet (1968), starring newcomers Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey. Writer Bruce Robinson, who played Benvolio in the film, later claimed that Zeffirelli tried to seduce him, and that he was the model for the lecherous Uncle Monty in Robinson’s 1987 film Withnail and I./ s- ~2 P g% x f( ^+ w
2 p) z. }: D4 ?# E5 ^8 M: h8 QGiven a small budget by Paramount, Romeo and Juliet made $50m – the highest ratio of investment to earnings in the history of the studio. “The effect on me was stunning,” he said. “It made me a lot of money, transforming me from someone who’d always lived at the limits of his income to someone who could be described as rich, and it elevated me from being a European celebrity to someone who was famous internationally.”
6 {& o4 L& y3 V( O3 u5 G% b
9 I7 ?* z- C( w( ^! j$ uA few months later Zefferelli was critically injured when the car he was in, driven by Gina Lollobrigida, skidded and smashed into a barrier, sending him through the windscreen. Months of facial surgery preceded his return to work with a triumphant staging of Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana at the Metropolitan. His accident had delayed his plans to film the life of Francis of Assissi, which he thought relevant to the “peace and love” movement of the Sixties. Titled Brother Sun, Sister Moon, the film appeared in 1972 and was criticised as simplistic and naive.
$ I( _' o1 F6 X' R
4 P2 i+ ?" |. i3 g2 ]% s2 V$ b8 TIn 1975 Zeffirelli embarked on a project that would take two years to complete – an ambitious television miniseries based on the life of Christ, titled Jesus of Nazareth. Featuring a starry cast supporting Robert Powell as Jesus and Olivia Hussey as Mary, the series was screened worldwide over Easter and was given the exceptional accolade of a mention by the Pope in his Psalm Sunday message.
- K+ B: J0 s; p4 L% _- U3 s, N( Q7 c4 C7 \% \
Zeffirelli next staged Alfred de Musset’s Lorenzaccio for the Comedie Francaise, and a triumphant Otello at La Scala (both 1976). Starring Placido Domingo, Mirella Freni and Piero Cappuccilli, with Carlos Kleiber conducting, Otello was the first La Scala premiere to be televised live.
5 c4 ?) Y& Q3 Y5 d& P1 G; R4 m; Y, S' r8 P3 Q7 d3 n( r
A second de Filippo play, Filumena, was another hit for the National, after which Zeffirelli went to Hollywood. Though his films The Champ (1979) and Endless Love (1981) attracted audiences, they were decried by critics.
* y2 }8 D2 Y1 D* u: t! r; x3 n; ?3 I' v1 [6 @% s2 d4 p
& U4 R) ^% f9 I$ S) c4 y. t% _Franco-Zeffirelli.jpg! {7 o' S6 P h% ~: f: _# M! g" W
Zeffirelli with Richard Burton on the set of ‘The Taming of the Shrew’, 1967 (Alamy). o h% E# G5 _& q7 v7 j# b0 u5 G
* N# F9 j3 U1 D. [Returning to La Scala in 1981 to stage Cavelleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, both starring Domingo, Zeffirelli filmed both productions, partly in the opera house and partly on location in Sicily. When shown on television in the US, Pagliaci won both a Grammy and Emmy. Teresa Stratas, the film’s soprano, then starred in La Boheme for Zeffirelli at the Metropolitan, and he realised he had the perfect star for a filmed version of La Traviata. When Jose Carreras declined to play Alfredo, Domingo accepted the role.
2 Q: G! A; c Y; [3 C' \: L9 e1 t1 v' S4 c2 r, Q
Visually entrancing, and extremely moving, La Traviata is one of the finest opera films. The film version of Otello is comparable in its power and spectacle, though marred for purists by some drastic cutting.
+ A. g9 }& o9 u( c- M
. v5 Y) N) f: s: \! f/ U8 HIn 1985 Zeffirelli designed his first ballet, Swan Lake, for La Scala, his revolutionary approach – particularly his replacement of tutus with calf-length dresses for the ballerinas – causing Mikhail Baryshnikov to withdraw from the production. He then made a film his detractors seized on – a ludicrous account of Toscanini’s early years, Young Toscanini (1988). The director was happier with an impressive Hamlet (1990) starring Mel Gibson, and a television film of Don Carlos (1992). But a version of Jane Eyre (1996) suffered from the mismatching of its leads, Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt./ Y6 f0 U/ g3 {% v% N
|1 Z3 Y% W, a) v+ r. E# `The cast of Tea With Mussolini (1999) was high-powered, including Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Lily Tomlin and Cher, and made Zeffirelli’s labour of love watchable if unsatisfying./ d Q" W2 m! i/ O1 T& O6 t& e
, m) S/ ]6 l& I; V; w* `His last films were Callas Forever (2002), a dramatisation of the singer’s last years, and Tre Fratelli (2005). In 2003 he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for his set designs for Absolutely! (Perhaps), and in November 2004 he was given an honorary knighthood.! c- H9 E& h @+ ]0 y
( a6 c0 S" ]0 O8 j7 XIn 2009, he was awarded the inaugural Premio Colesseo, which is given to those who have enhanced Rome’s reputation.: x1 ?: P$ J" A- A7 I- B0 J0 |- j
# g. [" q& p8 o& S/ f
Franco Zeffirelli, film and opera director, born 12 February 1923, died 15 June 2019, d, \' M) Z- [' q/ ^, X
5 o( Z9 W& @7 u) a* M1 R
Franco Zeffirelli: Film and opera director who revelled in the lavish and theatrical | The Independent
+ |/ @3 L5 C8 x. C! L4 `' O3 T! W1 Khttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/franco-zeffirelli-obituary-film-theatre-director-italy-romeo-and-juliet-tosca-maria-callas-a8959971.html
) J" ^7 s% t0 J- u- ^
; w: D: [; y- u/ Y, y& p4 i: e9 X# U2 J! }4 L
Culture > Film > News
1 h0 ?1 h& C# k0 OFranco Zeffirelli death: Italian director of film and opera dies aged 960 {8 ?: d7 `0 Z$ m
Famed for his opulent lyrical productions on the world’s major stages as well as for films, Zeffirelli worked with stars including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier1 w; B: r1 o q l
- p1 B( I' F' F' U, u
Roisin O'Connor @Roisin_OConnor
" B9 u8 w! h) u$ z5 ^5 _5 P# zSaturday 15 June 2019 13:00
z. [8 G! d5 m$ f
4 j: k# ^/ F+ y' U+ m5 W; k/ e5 e0 [
Zeffirelli with Richard Burton on the set of ‘The Taming of the Shrew’, 1967 ( Alamy )
9 Q( Y8 j3 k) k5 L) bFranco Zeffirelli, the film and opera director acclaimed for movies such as Romeo and Juliet, has died aged 96.2 W$ Z( k. }5 ^, |8 D/ W# }
5 u& e# L% D8 I2 |He died after a long illness that had grown worse in recent months, Italian media reported. He was the last of a generation of Italian film giants, including Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica, who came of age after the Second World War. $ j- m, H- T T
3 x; q! [1 F. Y s; e
Famed for his opulent lyrical productions on the world’s major stages as well as for films, Zeffirelli worked with stars including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, Alec Guinness, Faye Dunaway and Jon Voight.
% a$ d1 k- {0 x8 t7 l; j- c% N1 ^3 Q1 L; M5 o; W! w& a) F
“Franco Zeffirelli, one of the world’s greatest men of culture, passed away this morning,” Dario Nardella, the mayor of Zeffirelli’s home city of Florence, announced on Twitter.. k n: K0 ^- q/ e. ^
. t! I1 F: m0 _5 Q8 |
“Goodbye dear Maestro, Florence will never forget you.”) b% u& M- A7 V6 d6 B
" v2 |2 ~5 f/ ?! a( G. x2 nZeffirelli was born out of wedlock on 12 February 1923 and raised in Florence, the son of fashion designer, Alaide Garosi Cipriani and wool merchant Ottorino Corsi, both of whom were married to other people. His mother died when he was six, and he was taken in by his aunt.. y+ p3 o+ G5 t1 ^/ m
! C; q4 C' C7 A2 {4 @+ ~: L
He wrote in his autobiography that his passion for theatre was sparked during childhood holidays to Tuscany, where he saw performers by travelling players. “I’ve never believed anything at the theatre as much as the fantasies those storytellers brought us,” he said.6 l$ o- ^( T4 k; k: r- V2 B: x" k
" P9 y- W& z3 B" }! P
He attended a Roman Catholic school in Florence, where he said he was sexually assaulted by a priest. When the Second World War broke out, Zeffirelli joined the partisan effort and escaped death by firing squad twice. After the war, he abandoned his plans to become an architect and began working as an actor on the radio instead.
- c3 z8 }2 k) g2 _
0 l& l8 a. e5 y. F8 t# cIn a career that spanned more than 60 years, he became celebrated for his prolific work in film, theatre and opera. His most notable on-screen success was a lavish version of Romeo and Juliet, which starred a young Judi Dench at the Old Vic in London. It was dismissed by most critics, but went onto become an Oscar-winning, box-office hit starring teenage actors Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey in the late Sixties.; j7 T; b: \! f! z# C$ o
5 a2 x$ C; T2 pOther Shakespeare adaptations made for more hit movies, including The Taming of the Shrew starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and Hamlet with Mel Gibson and Glenn Close. He was celebrated as a populariser who brought classic works to a wider TV and film audience.
1 ^) r) o* {$ \7 E- ^
* j9 W. Q4 W: w: YLater projects included the 1981 romantic drama Endless Love, starring Brooke Shields, and a 1996 adaptation of Jane Eyre with the title role split between a young Anna Paquin, and Charlotte Gainsbourg. He worked again with Dench in the semi-autobiographical Tea With Mussolini, which he co-wrote with John Mortimer.. q. y5 _" w6 h; u
' Z6 w! l7 l. {- @; p; mThe two-time Oscar nominee also served in the Italian senate for two terms as a member of Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party. In 2004, he was made a knight of the British empire.8 H6 X! y; @, Z( r7 I$ k
% U' T; S1 r0 r y. UFranco Zeffirelli death: Italian director of film and opera dies aged 96 | The Independent: E5 S3 ]; a# g1 d+ z
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/franco-zeffirelli-dead-italy-director-jesus-nazareth-romeo-juliet-taming-shrew-age-tea-mussolini-a8959941.html
* j3 o: v! {* v/ l. h& ~, k7 @8 W3 x+ Z: i1 a. K; _( d
' {' Y$ @$ N$ V8 a9 b; b: _JUNE 15, 2019 5:40AM PT
7 M& e1 w% d( \Franco Zeffirelli, Director of ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ Dies at 96
. G. g1 O e' i, Y7 ]1 O r IBy RICHARD NATALE : \5 [' |$ K* Q: r+ c, ^, q8 W
' V& A" v* T8 @6 d. \
; ^1 @: K" m! f6 o1 C2 L. xCREDIT: ITV/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK1 |) P% \* z& t3 e" |
Franco Zeffirelli, the stylish and sometimes controversial theater, opera and film director, has died. He was 96.
0 L/ X- F5 x, s; ~- [+ p" i3 p( p9 j2 n- B" K* Q' }: n
Zeffirelli, who was Oscar-nominated for his 1968 version of “Romeo and Juliet,” died at his home in Rome at noon on Saturday, his son Luciano told the Associated Press. “He had suffered for a while, but he left in a peaceful way,” Luciano said.2 }, @$ o; d" ?. V
0 |. s- D! r4 |$ D0 c2 ^
While Zeffirelli was fond of making films with literary antecedents such as “Romeo and Juliet,” “Hamlet,” “Taming of the Shrew” and “Jane Eyre,” his legacy as director of extravagant opera and theater productions is probably more consistent and long-lasting.
1 J4 ~, X: @5 q& c# i5 O& }1 A# e: G, W& r% w* u4 Q
He directed, co-wrote and co-produced the 1966 production of “Taming of the Shrew,” starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, one of the twice-married celebrated pair’s most successful co-starring assignments. Spirited and amusing, it paved the way for a youthful and sexy “Romeo and Juliet,” which was a major box office success in the U.S. in 1968.
9 Q/ k$ h0 I6 u3 l/ _, I# [7 s6 S: V( K! g( I) K# Q1 b
Zeffirelli rose through the ranks as an assistant to his mentor Luchino Visconti, and his stage designs and eventually direction brought him to the great houses of the world: La Scala, the Met, etc. He directed Callas in “La Traviata” and major productions of “La Boheme,” “Carmen” and “Othello” (which he later filmed). He also directed legendary stage productions of “Hamlet” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”
& \' a5 e7 i, M% w
+ E9 i9 `9 t) B) rZeffirelli’s film output was less consistent, from the spirited and sensual “Romeo and Juliet” and playful “Taming of the Shrew” to the rather misshapen “Endless Love” and the unreleasable “Young Toscanini.”. @9 y+ y5 P( e, b% g
' ~( T- Z2 N5 B2 G4 G
He was politically the opposite of Visconti, with whom he had a relationship of several years. The openly gay Zeffirelli was also known for his socio-political declamations, particularly his anti-abortion, pro-Church stances.
% f. z7 w: s- g+ S; H" U. F
( k6 i7 }4 J% J1 G; a) [4 @After meeting Visconti while painting scenery for his production of “Tobacco Road,” he became an actor and stage manager in Visconti’s Morelli-Stoppa Co. Zeffirelli soon gave up acting to concentrate on working behind the scenes as an assistant director.
' R3 n7 |& U+ |- T$ C) g8 I
. ]) c2 {7 I* j: Z9 [. d$ T( \Through Visconti he met all the major playwrights and film directors of the day.
1 @ p0 o2 n5 j6 E8 b( t! |2 K7 @! f' s8 x0 z& L8 {
Zeffirelli assisted Visconti on 1948 film classic “La terra trema” and also his 1951 “Belissima” and 1954’s “Senso.” But he eventually broke through being seen as just another Visconti protege, and the stage became Zeffirelli’s mainstay for most of the next 20 years. In 1948 he assisted Salvador Dali on the Morelli-Stoppa production of “As You Like It.” He next designed Visconti’s famed Italian production of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and his equally heralded “Troilus and Cressida,” staged in Florence’s Boboli Gardens. In 1951 he designed the Morelli-Stoppa “Three Sisters,” also to great acclaim.
$ ^' s, }: m7 {, `! D
; Y! Q$ X0 V6 A" D1 f+ iMilan’s La Scala called on him in 1952 to design Rossini’s “L’Italiana in Algeri,” and the following year he designed and directed “La Cenerentola.” His first major hit at La Scala was Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore” in 1954.. o% o4 u/ O3 K% B8 U/ }$ J; }
% b6 f5 x2 L( p! ^, t
He continued to work in many of Italy’s top opera houses over the next few years and traveled abroad to stage the 1956 Holland Festival production of “Falstaff.” In 1958 he staged the landmark Dallas Civic Opera production of “La Traviata” with Maria Callas in which the story was all told in flashback.; M7 s- ~! M; Y
$ z( w1 B& a9 n* p$ U
In 1959 he debuted at the Royal Opera House in England with fresh productions of “Lucia di Lammermoor” (launching diva Joan Sutherland), “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “I Pagliacci.”! g$ @. A, P3 c/ {. H
( G2 u% `3 K) F- N' A5 nA year later he scored his first theater success with a vivacious and youthful production of “Romeo and Juliet,” which he also designed at the Old Vic in London. “The Vic has done nothing better for a decade,” wrote critic Kenneth Tynan in the New York Herald Tribune.& _8 a1 B! w# B t* ^) s- L
8 c- N8 z* Y8 {* d Z/ _In Dallas he continued to create one rich production after another, including Sutherland in “Alcina,” as well as “Don Giovanni” and “Daughter of the Regiment.” His production of “Othello” with John Gielgud in the lead was dubbed overproduced, but there was little complaint about his operatic “Falstaff” at Covent Garden.
' {5 C# V# ?. }% @+ [$ X( j
) y( q& C* Z mZeffirelli made his Broadway debut with a failed 1963 production of “The Lady of the Camellias” starring Susan Strasberg, but his “Aida” at La Scala with Leontyne Price and Carlo Bergonzi was praised and derided for its Cecil B. DeMille-like production. His “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” on the Italian stage was unanimously acclaimed, and his Old Vic “Hamlet” (in Italian starring Giorgio Albertazzi) was also an unqualified triumph. His 1977 “Filumena” with Joan Plowright was also well received.
" T7 ?) b' o i" P: a' b' Y9 D: ~0 U7 k3 R% B: O8 k
Zeffirelli’s Metropolitan Opera debut with “Falstaff” in 1964 was highly praised, and he opened the new Met in Lincoln Center in 1966 with Samuel Barber’s “Antony and Cleopatra.” He continued to grace the Met and other opera stages of the world well into the 1990s with visually sumptuous (sometimes overly so) but vibrant operatic productions, claiming that his aim was always to take the boredom out of the art form.7 f K2 _5 T3 J7 }- ]5 x
* D8 F6 @, U% P/ @9 a! m' g" L0 oIn 1965, Zeffirelli made his film debut with a filmed version of “La Boheme,” the first of several operas on film he would direct, including “La Traviata” in 1983 and “Otello” in 1986.
4 y6 N6 m" v( M, Z/ c, K2 x% _5 ?# d; i6 X6 T
He also directed the documentary about the disastrous floods of Florence called “Florence — Days of Destruction,” drawing attention and funding to the great Renaissance city’s plight.. @ T e V5 \! x% P0 Z
4 A, j6 B$ p7 ]" R2 S$ l0 AAfter a near-fatal car accident in 1969, Zeffirelli became a devout Catholic, a staunch defender of the Vatican and a follower of the charismatic Padre Pio. He was inspired to make a 1973 biography of Saint Francis of Assisi called “Brother Sun, Sister Moon,” which later developed a cult following, and the five-part, eight-hour miniseries “Jesus of Nazareth” (1977), which has since become something of a perennial, especially in Italy.
$ d: Y: D7 B- `# m9 C7 ?* n! h0 [7 i4 o" k6 H/ H% @* S4 M/ q* `
His remake of “The Champ,” starring Jon Voight and Faye Dunaway, in 1979 did not please critics but had some box office muscle, though his 1981 “Endless Love” was not a hit with reviewers or audiences.0 C2 }2 n$ v; f0 O, g9 N2 C0 n6 t$ a( q
0 z" H7 Y! P% b" r$ e
Opera adaptations aside, he directed the disastrous “Young Toscanini” in 1988, though his “Hamlet” starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close drew a mixed reception.% v1 S# K9 D1 L1 _
7 q: P$ l1 m+ K. k' d: {In 1996, he directed a moderately well-received adaptation of “Jane Eyre,” considered one of his more restrained filmic efforts.1 s; i- n, p+ A4 }9 P2 [4 |- t
" q6 j" u% d, o, ~( MHis 1999 film “Tea With Mussolini,” a portrait of a group of American and English eccentrics in northern Italy before and during WWII, sported a fine cast (Cher, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith and Lily Tomlin) but was dramatically underwhelming. The film was semiautobiographical; after his mother’s death when he was 6, he subsequently grew up under the auspices of the British expat community." b' [4 l8 T" u) u
* i( V0 R% ^" Y) t6 T: c- H4 r1 VIn 2002 he spun a fictional tale about a middle-aged Callas (played by Fanny Ardant) in “Callas Forever.”
6 z# W6 Y$ p5 R0 I* o
* H1 M! i: r$ c1 H0 V" t, jFranco Zeffirelli Corsi was born in Florence, the child of an extra-marital affair between businessman Ottorini Corsi and fashion designer Adelaide Garosi. Zeffirelli studied at Florence’s art school Liceo Artistico and then, with his father prodding him in the direction of an architectural career, he studied at the School of Architecture at the U. of Florence. While there, he became director of the university’s theater company and directed and staged amateur opera productions in Siena.. D2 u; L% n& e
/ V8 l2 P: g3 _" A/ K
In 1943, with Italy under German occupation, Zeffirelli fought with the partisans and developed a hatred of both Fascism and Communism. He was reportedly captured by the Facists and nearly killed before a remarkable save when his interrogator turned out to be a half brother he didn’t know.; f4 Y4 X/ Y; Y, K* g0 o; z
$ G$ U$ r- z: d* `: m" k
Despite his religious zeal, Zeffirelli was was criticized by Catholics for what they considered blasphemous depictions in his films while also drawing the ire of gay activists upset with his support for church positions. After running for political office and losing in the ’80s, Zeffirelli was elected to the Italian Senate from the Sicilian city of Catania in 1994 as a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia party and held the post until 2001.
0 m- J, x. S* s5 p1 m
& z8 Q% Q) }* I% t T7 D$ `He published a film journal, “My Life of Jesus,” to accompany his religious miniseries, which addressed his theological side. In his later years Zeffirelli’s often intemperate remarks to the press about his religious beliefs. He was no less outspoken about his fellow artists, fond of sparring matches in the press.
6 E f, U. q R' `, L) K! [) T5 d4 b% t/ {3 X) } q& i$ \: l
In 2018, he was accused of sexual assault by actor Johnathon Schaech, who starred in his 1993 film “Sparrow.”
( J% k9 _$ J3 O7 M$ k! Q; C4 A! v k& K
9 C* C: W( L. n* {* ]+ yLate in life, he adopted two adult men who became his caretakers and survive him.
( n- c# {1 f; U# V3 J5 F; j3 n9 b5 g% L N2 z
Franco Zeffirelli Dead: ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Director Was 96 – Variety2 l/ `% V! q V- k7 [) i; O D6 q
https://variety.com/2019/film/news/franco-zeffirelli-dies-dead-director-theater-opera-film-1203244589/, ?7 c/ l. P; A* Y
3 z* n1 c! }1 S- q. E
# I6 n" `/ {$ V$ fJUNE 19, 2019 8:15AM PT
, A& N# U5 m9 IFranco Zeffirelli: An Artist and a Paradox! c2 F! }1 S7 ]& ~
By OWEN GLEIBERMAN/ g0 n; x* {- \" k: Z2 N2 d# K
7 M b+ z' D- c/ _$ u% o: W; ]& m; x# {, y
CREDIT: REGENT RELEASING/COURTESY EVERET5 ^* U$ P2 Q# ?: @0 p, z
6 E3 S5 d* K; h+ e! T2 o4 l/ q7 A! P TWhen popular artists pass on, it can often be a surprise to learn just how old they were. But the news of Franco Zeffirelli’s death, at 96, inspired a major double take. The extravagant Italian maestro of theater, opera and film lived to a vibrant old age. Yet for many of us, the name Zeffirelli will always conjure the spirit of youth. That’s because of what he brought to the Hollywood party in 1968. In “Romeo and Juliet,” he became the first film artist to make the counterculture swoon.
" V/ O0 ?. ] c, Q# _, c" Z. R: W
- ^* t; U8 N, Z: iIn a move that was at once audacious and indelible, Zeffirelli cast Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy with actors who were shockingly young and, at the same time, ridiculously gorgeous. Leonard Whiting, at 17, and Olivia Hussey, at 16, were closer to the stated age of Shakespeare’s protagonists than most of the actors who had played them. But, of course, it wasn’t just fealty to the text that inspired Zeffirelli’s gambit. It was the tribal erotic youth dance of the ’60s, which “Romeo and Juliet” became a part of. The movie was a hip rhapsody of desire, and it seemed to baptize the entire culture in the fatal beauty of youth.
) K' `; J2 J( G
1 W7 B7 G5 U( u# j! r0 q) Z9 OIf you watch the film now, Whiting calls to mind a more delicate Zac Efron, and Hussey, with her crystalline features and thousand-yard stare of rapture, is like a princess genie. But here was the beauty part: They could both act! The result is one of the most living, breathing Shakespeare films ever made. It fashioned a new youthquake out of giving yourself up for love, though there was another message as well: As long as the world still spun around this sort of breathless duet of aristocratic cheekbones, the new spirit of left-wing egalitarianism was probably going to have its limits.
D8 k, b" T' f' z1 T/ t, v
5 W* d/ ^; |) ^8 |" F0 n% N% ?1 OThere was a paradox to Zeffirelli, and it may account for why his film career then caved in instead of flourishing. He was an openly gay artist whose opera productions were inevitably evoked by words like “baroque,” “opulent,” “extravagant” and “decadent.” As a stage director, he truly was the Baz Luhrmann of his day. Mounting eye-catching versions of “La Bohème” or “Falstaff” or “Tosca” in the late ’50s and early ’60s, he was obsessed with the hypnotic, sensory-overload possibilities of set design, and in many ways anticipated the reigning Broadway aesthetic of jaw-dropping spectacle-for-its-own-sake.
/ Y/ c; W" W6 C/ O8 J/ [4 `2 `' P
! {9 S- V7 z/ ]& E3 S$ bYet Zeffirelli was also a devout Roman Catholic who underwent a profound conversion after he was in a car accident in 1969. He aligned himself with the Vatican, opposing gay and abortion rights, and it’s tempting to say that in his yin-and-yang of luscious flamboyance and stern conservatism, he was playing out some conflict within himself. He was plagued by allegations of sexual harassment and assault, going all the way back to the set of “Romeo and Juliet,” where the actor-director Bruce Robinson later claimed that Zeffirelli had assaulted him. Robinson said that he based the predatory character of Uncle Monty, in his film “Withnail and I,” on Zeffirelli.
0 b: I2 X- j9 @/ a1 L/ [4 N
3 B( \* d- ?: K9 n1 Q5 iZeffirelli tried to stage a comeback, of sorts, directing the 1979 Jon Voight remake of “The Champ” (a glossy weeper without much personality), and in 1981 he was given the plum assignment of adapting “Endless Love,” Scott Spencer’s brilliant novel of teenage romantic fixation. But the movie, which starred Brooke Shields, just showed how much Hollywood had changed since the late ’60s. This was a youth film at once cautious and pandering; Zeffirelli followed the outline of Spencer’s novel but couldn’t channel its inner fire.
9 a# V2 m# F4 E- L" m h2 P8 c& D6 e! ^0 _; B
Yet he remained a genuine religious artist. His one screen work of true power, apart from “Romeo and Juliet,” is the 1977 TV miniseries “Jesus of Nazareth,” arguably the best middle-of-the-road dramatization of the Gospels. It lacks the radical intensity of the Christ films of Martin Scorsese or Pier Paolo Pasolini, yet with its ardent performance by Robert Powell, it’s a work of passionate purity that has remained a touchstone. You could almost say that in Zeffirelli’s work, Romeo and Juliet and Jesus became a holy trinity. Call it “What They Did for Love.”" h# B' U& [. A: [, z
, c8 u" ?& a8 P7 q- |
Franco Zeffirelli: Remembering a Paradoxical Career – Variety, j4 H2 W( }: q4 r) V0 H" e, D% `
https://variety.com/2019/film/news/franco-zeffirelli-remembered-1203246938/
& g$ K0 e3 O2 M4 A% j
, s/ U. u3 v1 o5 P* O% F, S2 i. d. R& q
Franco Zeffirelli, Italian Director With Taste for Excess, Dies at 96: m' t8 q- }' T/ ]
% A; g5 l4 ?2 ~. w! L
5 |1 V* q+ k4 k' w. v9 {! G1 p8 y9 a% L 登錄/註冊後可看大圖
Franco Zeffirelli at home in Rome. Credit Kathryn Cook for The New York Times
0 z* X, z4 x) u( K7 d( t" EBy Jonathan Kandell, q4 H4 O% G& W, n* l* P" f
June 15, 2019& y* \0 ?: [/ [, t* i
4 L+ n+ K# v9 k. I. A6 EFranco Zeffirelli, the Italian director renowned for his extravagantly romantic opera productions, popular film versions of Shakespeare and supercharged social life, died on Saturday at his home in Rome. He was 96.& a2 I: K+ G6 a3 M3 F( Y' `+ V
8 K; b1 T+ N6 s, I# U# \His death was confirmed by a spokesman for the Franco Zeffirelli Foundation in Florence.
; f" S! r. a6 n" T% E+ i; P, R6 R! _+ o7 s' N! T2 D
Critics sometimes reproached Mr. Zeffirelli’s opera stagings for a flamboyant glamour more typical of Hollywood’s golden era, while Hollywood sometimes disparaged his films as too highbrow. But his success with audiences was undeniable., a9 S$ }: f% ]- w- F" T- s
' u' k. p5 s# v' l9 d+ S
Beginning with his 1964 staging of Verdi’s “Falstaff,” his productions drew consistently large audiences to the Metropolitan Opera in New York over the next 40 years. His staging with Maria Callas of Verdi’s “La Traviata” in Dallas in 1958 and Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca” at Covent Garden in London in 1964 “remain touchstones for opera aficionados and Callas cultists,” Brooks Peters wrote in a profile of Mr. Zeffirelli in Opera News in 2002.. ]1 H9 a; m$ k8 N2 Q6 r
4 u/ v/ i/ l3 u8 o2 a/ p8 ZMr. Zeffirelli’s filming of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” starring the teenage Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, thrilled millions of young viewers who had been untouched by the bard. “I’ve made my career without the support of the critics, thank God,” he told Opera News.
, c0 p5 \- W% {# w5 V5 q% X, `: Y! z" ~3 G8 Y$ M3 W0 F F5 H
Even for the hyperbolic world of opera, his sets and costumes could seem overdone. In Bizet’s “Carmen,” he populated the stage with horses and donkeys. The headdress he designed for the imperious princess in Puccini’s “Turandot” appeared to be on the verge of collapsing under its own weight. Mr. Zeffirelli’s 1998 revamping of “La Traviata” was savaged by the critics for its overwhelming décor.
, V$ P9 C/ H, _9 K o$ T1 j$ N3 R A) g' @- J( K' U5 k
“His new look at Verdi’s masterpiece remains waiting and ready for a cast strong enough in personality to compete with its director’s illusions of grandeur,” Bernard Holland wrote in The New York Times.
$ L% ]1 I0 K* O; v- a7 D, j
2 \' t! i. k6 D Nonetheless, performances of the opera sold out.& Y* N- g% {! d* G( I
% s {$ c& X) [+ gSome divas adored Mr. Zeffirelli despite his reputation for focusing too much on the staging. The mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves recounted how he helped her create an interpretation of the headstrong gypsy in his 1996 production of “Carmen” that was hailed for years to come. Mr. Zeffirelli convinced Ms. Graves that unlike the conventional view of Carmen as a carefree, liberated woman, she in fact lacked confidence and feared losing her freedom by falling in love.6 U3 ~' ^- F3 G. I( U0 Q
9 c# E4 ^' q( G9 J5 G, @$ \“I had never thought of it that way,” Ms. Graves told The Times in 2002. “It began to open a window in my mind that I didn’t know existed. From that moment on I had to relearn and rethink everything. I felt that I had no idea who Carmen was. It changed my singing completely. And that was just in the first five minutes.”
; K) z: a) x; G4 o" P
3 L! v" H( q# f+ c8 EA whirlwind of energy, Mr. Zeffirelli found time not only to direct operas, films and plays past the age of 80, but also to carry out an intense social life and even pursue a controversial political career. He had a long, tumultuous love affair with Luchino Visconti, the legendary director of film, theater and opera. He was a friend and confidant of Callas, Anna Magnani, Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Liza Minnelli, Coco Chanel and Leonard Bernstein.5 h( t" J; i! N& S4 u& b, B$ K
0 T9 V1 K' j% Y9 F
Twice elected to the Italian Parliament, Mr. Zeffirelli was an ultraconservative senator, particularly on the issue of abortion. In a 1996 New Yorker article, he declared that he would “impose the death penalty on women who had abortions.” He said his extreme views on the subject were colored by the fact that he himself was born out of wedlock despite pressure brought to bear on his mother to terminate her pregnancy.
7 j8 r# ^7 A5 Z0 f
$ T( X) ~% ]8 ^+ |6 A5 Y' ~2 }Franco Zeffirelli was born in Florence on Feb. 12, 1923, a product of an extramarital affair. His father, Ottorino Corsi, was a respected wool and silk merchant but inveterate womanizer, and his mother, Alaide Garosi, was a fashion designer who owned a dressmaking shop. Both were married to others at the time.
) J8 T* u$ n# @" t4 \3 G) {
) r% T0 }( i8 u& S. c! uBy one oft-told account Mr. Zeffirelli was named by his mother. In those days in Italy children of purportedly “unknown” fathers were assigned surnames starting with a different letter each year. He was born in the year of Z. His mother chose Zeffiretti, drawing on a word, meaning little breezes, heard in an aria in Mozart’s opera “Così Fan Tutte.” A transcription error, however, rendered it Zeffirelli. One problem with the story is that “zeffiretti” does not appear in the libretto. “Aurette,” breezes, does., W3 B. e4 w$ o" n
3 U3 h/ h: |$ |- S* d- T
He knew his father only “in flashes,” he told The Times in 2009.
L; f8 y4 h1 H# J2 B/ |4 T2 u) _( p5 ~% m' v% P9 [/ G; \/ J+ P
“I remember this gentleman came, especially at night,” he said. “I woke up and saw this shadowy man naked in bed with my mother.”
! E$ L6 R! N: B8 p4 ~
! Y' u; ]: f" ]/ H, S5 x/ OBy one account his mother placed him with a peasant family, then took him in herself two years later, after her husband died. After she died of tuberculosis a few years later, he was sent to live with a cousin of his father’s.
9 i) n+ S5 S$ J. w5 q6 r$ e$ j1 Y) W2 Z: J+ z: e( k) f* M' V
He went to school in Florence, at the venerable Accademia di Belle Arti. One of his earliest memories was emerging from school at the end of classes and being accosted in the street by his father’s wife. “Bastardino, little bastard, you little bastard!” the woman screamed, Mr. Zeffirelli recalled in a 1986 autobiography.7 m) P3 T2 ~; f! ?' M
9 u* h* A% O/ @He was taken to his first opera by an uncle at age 8 and was so smitten by stage design that while his friends played games after school, he buried himself in his cardboard scenes for Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung.”0 |9 [# O# b. B) e9 M
: B* x$ |% l" y
His interest in Shakespeare was awakened by an older British woman, Mary O’Neill, who tutored him in English as a child and imbued him with ethical values that foiled the Fascist curriculum served up at school.' a; a2 q3 U1 N! r ^" u4 ]9 W9 g
5 @0 P% S5 V/ \( |* Q$ t1 i2 d' l2 F“She kept injecting in me the cult of freedom of democracy that remained in my DNA for the rest of my life,” Mr. Zeffirelli told Opera News.0 z. n- k, ]6 e+ Y: u: z9 s: N; o: L
& x' l2 r* M# T- j- M+ _1 N
She and her expatriate friends in Florence became the subjects of “Tea With Mussolini” (1999), his acclaimed autobiographical film starring Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith and Judi Dench.+ O; @4 |% L( R* ]4 H* e
9 D( l. P/ C# \: l9 F% J
He went on to study architecture at the University of Florence, until the onset of World War II interrupted his education. He joined Communist partisan forces, first fighting Mussolini’s Fascists and then the occupying Nazis. Captured by the Fascists, he was saved from the firing squad when his interrogator miraculously turned out to be a half brother whom he had never known. The half brother arranged his release.
/ W6 h5 G8 ?4 X9 h U- a0 y# n: p0 y0 M$ d9 y8 t( I6 s* p# |. H
After the war he resumed his architecture studies at the university, but theater remained his abiding interest. In the late 1940s, the director Luchino Visconti spotted Mr. Zeffirelli, blond and blue-eyed, working as a stagehand in Florence.4 j- Q6 w: G9 j# Y Q" {; R
7 k8 _( P# ]6 t“I begged him, I showed to him my designs as a set designer, that was my dream,” Mr. Zeffirelli said.
7 E+ d0 Q. s* c& M4 E$ P% n( v3 E8 h5 ^: i3 e* n8 u6 L. G
A smitten Mr. Visconti gave him his big break in 1949, making him his personal assistant and set designer for his production of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the first staging of the play in Italy.
7 B- ?: r( |4 S( i8 L( A- n+ \2 K9 r( I$ T. a
The two became romantically involved and lived together for three years. In his autobiography, published in 2006, Mr. Zeffirelli wrote that he considered himself “homosexual,” disliking the term “gay” as inelegant.& V" X L3 A k7 ^) k
; F, T" c n* aFor years, Mr. Zeffirelli was responsible for Visconti sets and costumes. “Luchino showed me the world of creativity in theater and films, how to conceive an idea and how to bring together a whole world of culture that could embody it,” Mr. Zeffirelli wrote in his autobiography. “In other words, how to direct.”0 c! ^- H5 K1 e+ g Q. y
; a: h+ I6 J8 }# k: m- IBut Mr. Visconti sought to undermine his protégé’s attempts to strike out on his own. Directing his first play, a revival of Carlo Bertolazzi’s “Lulu” in Rome in the 1940s, Mr. Zeffirelli was appalled to discover Mr. Visconti in the audience leading a chorus of jeers. The incident, Mr. Zeffirelli wrote, was part of the long, painful break between the two men.9 h! p/ _6 Z* z( Y
. R3 }/ ?3 C2 r, a' q# |
Several years ago, Mr. Zeffirelli adopted two adult sons — Giuseppe (known as Pippo) and Luciano — men he had known and worked with for years. They helped manage his affairs, and survive him.
) z/ P0 i' B. j: ~) _) ]8 M. w7 e* `
6 O4 @! C' P2 i. O4 d0 [“I missed my father when I was a child, I craved becoming a father myself,” he told The Times in 2009. “But the facts of life prevented me from doing it.”
l0 o# H) e$ w* O& l5 r7 \! m
% g- O ~2 o0 l- H# `Within a few years of the “Lulu” revival in Rome, Mr. Zeffirelli had established himself as an inspired director of operas and plays on the world’s leading stages. In 1959, in London, he directed the then little known Joan Sutherland in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor,” getting her “to make sense of the Mad Scene,” wrote the composer Ned Rorem in a 1996 Times article, “by cupping her hand to her ear, heeding her alter ego as echoed by the schizophrenic flute.”
4 _9 l3 ~* _5 f
4 n' Z: [( x: y4 H6 NIn 1960, at London’s Old Vic, Mr. Zeffirelli directed a very young Judi Dench in a celebrated “Romeo and Juliet.” But it was the film version, released in the United States in 1968, that achieved superstar status for Mr. Zeffirelli. Costing a mere $1.5 million, the film grossed more than $50 million.
4 \& P5 e& M5 J0 f8 F6 ~5 l4 i, D; s" M$ B) U
“From Bronx to Bali, Shakespeare was a box-office hit,” wrote Mr. Zeffirelli.# w6 Y; d \/ R, q1 @+ [& d
& Y/ z& \4 x8 ~8 `5 w! E% fAlso extremely popular were his film adaptations of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” (1967) with Ms. Taylor and Mr. Burton, and “Hamlet” (1990) starring Mel Gibson.+ @3 i' H) s4 G4 D a1 H F
( T, [4 Y5 S( m
Mr. Zeffirelli scored further successes with film versions of operas, including “La Traviata” (1982), starring Teresa Stratas, and “Otello” (1986), with Plácido Domingo. His “Brother Sun, Sister Moon” (1973), depicting the life of St. Francis, and the television mini-series “Jesus of Nazareth” (1977) also drew huge worldwide audiences, if not always critical acclaim.
" k4 c5 M3 T) m: V; M/ u" S7 \* V& h7 ^. E/ F6 R: i
Mr. Zeffirelli did suffer a few memorable disasters. His 1963 directorial debut on Broadway — a production of Alexandre Dumas’s “The Lady of the Camellias,” starring Susan Strasberg — closed after four evenings. His production of Samuel Barber’s “Antony and Cleopatra,” a world premiere which inaugurated the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in 1966, “entered the annals of famous flops,” the Times critic Anthony Tommasini wrote in 2003.! F: q3 w+ e, d7 O4 }' w" z
& C. c; I% F8 Z; sAnd in his memoir, Mr. Zeffirelli conceded that his misdirected 1981 film, “Endless Love,” starring the teenage Brooke Shields, would long be remembered as the butt of Bette Midler’s classic Oscar-night joke that year: “That endless bore.”% b: g2 r( z7 \8 h! j; g
! c' D) t+ h/ c% o6 q' p( o7 C) M
But these setbacks could not obscure Mr. Zeffirelli’s very considerable triumphs. When asked in 2002 why Mr. Zeffirelli’s production of Falstaff had endured at the Metropolitan Opera for almost four decades, Joseph Volpe, the Met’s general manager, replied:1 U! J& b. A/ \! C* Z8 ?
" b9 Q! R W1 V4 {! k
“Now, it may be said by those great minds in the opera world, ‘Can’t the Met do any better than this?’ My answer is: ‘We don’t want to do better than this. As far as I’m concerned, this is the best.’ ”
8 a: H; a6 N& m6 j$ |
9 i7 ^4 F8 h# i& L/ U5 IAn earlier version of this obituary misstated part of the title of a Mozart opera. It is “Così Fan Tutte,” not “Così Fan Tutti.”1 p9 A1 t2 d0 ?) t
& d1 S' x6 {$ C/ {) R$ Y
Franco Zeffirelli, Italian Director With Taste for Excess, Dies at 96 - The New York Times3 x) ~1 B7 ~5 v& p {: t1 a
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/15/arts/music/franco-zeffirelli-dead.html
$ \" g% b0 W. B" L8 q% q' `2 B: }
7 z) e1 ] a1 UThe problem with this story 其實是紐約時報自己搞錯了, 是Idomeneo 不是Così Fan Tutte, 其他媒體都沒犯這個錯誤.7 B) k! K5 d Y( o" |
' K: }+ w9 F& {8 |0 l$ M |
|
發表於 2019-7-7 04:42
8 a/ d( _4 x" R( X/ c% }
. o4 S/ s/ o: D- s1 W
, N& P; g' @. D+ Y/ o- j
! ~( U0 y0 O9 l
. o: D3 W& ^+ G
% ]* F; S+ O; M. @- i7 P
+ X$ p: x4 M. u1 @7 F
2 h% p1 V0 v3 R& e1 S8 R
$ d3 x+ f! R# i8 P: B; `" \
收藏
頂
踩
樓主
; |2 ?. W6 S1 u2 Y6 Q- A# Q
# v& V2 Y8 l1 H1 M
1 G4 x5 q/ \5 a$ x. w" g' V$ M
+ a' z1 ~7 f: H7 G5 c
0 ~* `+ }0 r" |- g
! n7 w7 x& a. Y0 S; c
( O8 m" F5 Y. Y; m! S4 T
) e8 {9 p5 a+ r& P' K! O9 }0 W; Q |
0 D1 C5 u+ n4 v
' }' H7 y: x% R j8 \ L5 ]
9 W, \( {4 M6 b2 t
8 ]: e9 n2 s3 m# e
7 ^ L7 X. ^% c% E F
6 i' ?8 h2 \/ M: [- k
4 g1 m( N0 x+ ?, x
9 c2 t u; J1 \1 p+ w" }
( i; D& B0 `0 e3 `1 l, m
. ]8 E+ D) C. K) g
+ L5 r4 o4 l9 w0 e9 s
r m( N f, ~8 F' A; ^' R) [+ Z# p
5 G3 _/ \5 Y% E5 |+ p! ~9 h
# `0 M" ]. l9 {. v
. Y& C5 V- M% E; r
: ^. e* x! I1 ?* `; [+ e
; u/ O5 p, Q/ j' D4 {4 _
