Woody Returns to L.A., Culture in Tow
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Woody Allen will make his operatic debut in September 2008, directing Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” at the Los Angeles Opera. It’s hard to imagine Allen feeling at home in the City of Angels (in “Annie Hall” he perfected the role of fish-out-of-water New Yorker in L.A., famously saying, “I don’t want to move to a city where the only cultural advantage is being able to make a right turn on a red light”), or, for that matter, in the world of Italian opera, but “Gianni Schicchi” is the only comedic opera ever written by Puccini, so perhaps that will bring the first-time opera director some sense of comfort.