impending disasters

What Disaster Will Befall Terry Gilliam’s Upcoming Opera?

We love Terry Gilliam, we really do. It’s just that every announcement of a new project from the unlucky filmmaker comes with a virtual guarantee that something awful is about to happen (flash floods and herniated discs on the set of his aborted The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, the death of Heath Ledger during the production of Doctor Parnassus, etc.). Now the Guardian says Gilliam will direct the English National Opera’s production of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust next summer. Sure, his visual style is a good match for an opera set partially in hell, but even the ENO’s artistic director says mounting one’s first production “can be like a car crash coming at you from every angle.” Has ENO just run out of ideas for new operas, and they’re hoping the inevitable tragedy of Gilliam’s Faust might inspire something? We hope they have fire, flood, hurricane, earthquake, and asteroid insurance.

Terry Gilliam to direct Faust for English National Opera [Guardian UK via ArtsBeat/NYT]

What Disaster Will Befall Terry Gilliam’s Upcoming Opera?