Word: zambello
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...first of the computer-animated films to be turned into theater - which presents different challenges. The romantic sweep and handcrafted classicism of Disney's earlier films could in no way be translated literally to the stage - and that inspired directors like Julie Taymor (The Lion King) and Francesca Zambello (The Little Mermaid) to come up with unique, often inspired stage equivalents. Computer animation, however, adds a level of realistic detail - nuances of facial expression, a more subtle, offhand approach to comedy - that seems to demand a more literal approach...
...just a visual feast. In fact, I think it comes closer than any Disney show since The Lion King to combining story, song and inventive staging into something that lifts our spirits and renews our faith that theater for "children" can be enjoyed by everyone. Acclaimed opera director Francesca Zambello, doing her first Broadway show, can't match Julie Taymor's innovative staging in The Lion King (but then, who can - not even Taymor since then), but she has the same inventive, less-is-more, determinedly theatrical approach. Instead of wires and pulleys or complicated stage effects to simulate...
...Opera's new production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. But the prospect of finding a fresh pair of singers capable of tackling Wagner's most vocally demanding roles is only part of what's drawing opera lovers to the Pacific Northwest. This Tristan is being staged by Francesca Zambello, whose penchant for scandalizing stodgy opera buffs with a startling blend of flashy theatrics and unabashed feminism has made her the most controversial opera director of her generation. "Tristan's ship," Zambello explains gleefully, "is a huge ocean liner that has Isolde in the middle...
Judging by Zambello's history, that isn't a bad prediction. Six years ago, she staged Donizetti's popular Lucia di Lammermoor for New York City's Metropolitan Opera, and her vision of madness and death--the stage was strewn with coffins--drew catcalls from tuxedoed first-nighters expecting something considerably more romantic. In her version of Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride, presented last fall by the New York City Opera, the two principal male characters were stripped down to skimpy loincloths and chained together, to underline what Zambello believes to be the opera's homosexual subtext. "Cesca...
Born in New York City, Zambello, 41, majored in philosophy at Colgate University, although she already knew she wanted to become a director. Dark-eyed, strong-featured and forceful to a fault, she confesses to being "a born control freak." An apprenticeship with the innovative opera director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle led to her 1986 European debut at Venice's Teatro la Fenice, and her work is now seen regularly at London's Covent Garden and Paris' Bastille Opera, as well as in such American cities as Houston, where her joltingly fresh takes on Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Britten...