Rome opera house taps Hollywood glitz for new ‘Traviata’

By Isla Binnie ROME (Reuters) – Rome's opera house has called on the star power of Hollywood and high fashion for a new production that is already racking up record ticket sales for an institution that until two years ago was grappling with debt and labor disputes. Stars of stage and screen, including reality TV celebrity Kim Kardashian and her rapper husband Kanye West, converged on Rome on Sunday for a gala dress rehearsal of Giuseppe Verdi's “La Traviata”, which tells the tragic story of a self-sacrificing courtesan in 19th-century Paris. Veteran designer Valentino Garavani produced this version of “La Traviata”, which opens on May 24 and runs till June 30, through his foundation.

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Rome opera house taps Hollywood glitz for new ‘Traviata’

Academy Award winner Sofia Coppola to direct first opera in Rome

Academy Award winner Sofia Coppola will make her operatic debut in May, directing a new production of Giuseppe Verdi's romantic tragedy “La Traviata”, Rome's opera house said on Monday. Coppola, who won the gold statuette for the screenplay of the 2003 film “Lost in Translation”, was invited to direct the production by its patron, fashion designer Valentino Garavani, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma said in a statement. Garavani asked the American film director and producer to swap screen for stage after watching her 2006 historical drama “Marie Antoinette”, in which the theater said she balanced “the classic and the modern”.

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Academy Award winner Sofia Coppola to direct first opera in Rome