"Opera Isn't Hollywood"

The New York Times passes on word from Variety that director William Friedkin has withdrawn as the director of an operatic version of "An Inconvenient Truth" that was to have premiere at La Scala on May 11, 2011.

The Times says:

In departing the production, adapted from the environmental documentary featuring former Vice President Al Gore, Mr. Friedkin, the director of "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection," cited "irreconcilable creative differences" with the poet J. D. McClatchy, who is writing the libretto. But Giorgio Battistelli, the composer of the opera, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that Mr. Friedkin left "for personal, not artistic reasons," and criticized the director for his use of special effects in the production, saying, "Opera isn’t Hollywood."