Opera on film - Richard Fawkes

Film makers have always been fascinated by opera. Long before the birth of the Talkies, pioneers were trying to make sound films of operatic arias. In Germany over a thousand were made before the official arrival of sound. In addition, those directors not experimenting with sound frequently used opera as their source for silent features.;Cecil B. De Mille's 1915 "Carmen", starring reigning queen of the Met, Geraldine Farrar, made his name and turned her into one of the silver screen's earliest stars.;Film makers have sought ways to popularise opera on the screen throughout the century through complete operas, operettas and operatic arias, stars such as Caruso, Chaliapin, Gigli, Tauber and Pavoraotti, and films made for television. Today film makers remain fascinated by the challenge of producing the perfect screen opera.;"Opera on Film" charts the strory of this fascination. It demonstrates the hitherto unrecognised importance of opera within the history of the cinema and recounts some of the explosive incidents that occur when diva meets director.