Academy Award winner Sofia Coppola to direct “La Traviata” in Rome

In May 2016, Sofia Coppola makes her directorial debut for the opera in Rome; she is set to be working on the upcoming production of La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. This production of Verdi’s classic is part of the designer Valentino Garavini and Giancarlo Giammetti’s vision to revive arts in Rome through their eponymous foundation.

Coppola is well-known for her Oscar win for screenplay of the 2003 film Lost in Translation, in which she was also nominated for best director – the first American woman to receive a nomination. She received Venice film festival’s Golden Lion award for her film Somewhere in 2010. However, it was a different film that gave fashion designer Valentino – who is designing the costumes – the inspiration to ask Coppola. After Valentino saw the 2006 historical drama Marie Antoinette, which he stated was a blend of “the classic and the modern,” he asked Coppola if she would come to Rome and direct for the stage.

The music in the show comes from Jader Bignamini, associate director of the orchestra Verdi in Milan. Francesca Dotto and Maria Grazia Schiavo alternate in the role of Violetta, along with Antonio Poli and Arturo Chacón-Cruz as Alfredo.

Although a three-year slump of public money for the arts in Rome ended in 2015, this opera is an example of the many artistic initiatives Valentino’s Foundation has become involved with in order to receive private funding.

– Ben Jacob