Terry Gilliam Directs Damnation of Faust

YES! Opera is a natural home for Terry Gilliam, far more than film. Gilliam possesses an explosive, surreal genius that seems totally unsuited for the realities of the film industry. Film requires a cooler, more disciplined temperament more open to compromise than theater, radio or even animation. There is a reason that Alfred Hitchcock turned out masterpiece after masterpiece while Welles spent his days begging for funding. Terry Gilliam is one of those directors who needs a place where he can rule the production like an absolute monarch. Whether such an attitude is healthy for opera is a discussion for another day. Even so, the fact remains that there is no profession in today's world that provides an artist with more autocratic control than that of the opera director.