COPPOLA'S BOHEME

"I wanted to be with friends in a 'La Boheme'-style fraternity." - Francis Ford Coppola

Sometimes I have fantasies about what type of opera productions I might stage if I were ever fortunate enough to have the privilege to direct them.

My latest imagined conceit has been inspired by Eleanor Ford Coppola's 1991 documentary 'Hearts Of Darkness' and in particular the scene where the notoriously gargantuan production of 'Apocalypse Now' is rained off due to a biblical typhoon sweeping across the island of Baler in the Philipines which forces the director, Francis Coppola, to retreat inside and make pasta whilst blasting Puccini's 'La Boheme".

There's just something about this image I hugely relate to, especially as I've lost count of the number of times I've played 'La Boheme' in my life, also at times of bad weather. I suppose it's been my comfort blanket of sorts where Rodolfo, Marcello and the other Bohemians have become like friends to me all huddled in their impoverished garrets in Paris. And today with the rain pouring down in England, I am playing a newly discovered recording with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu conducted by Riccardo Chailly on Decca and have just lit the fire in my Cotswold dwelling as I can hear steady drips falling from the inside of the roof.

What with the awful weather and the sublime Puccini I have only now been further encouraged to imagine my own 'Rushmore' style production of 'La Boheme' in which I would have Francis Ford Coppola sitting at his typewriter downstage left eating pasta and looking out at the tempest raging outside his window while the Bohemians play out their scenes centre stage in a traditional style. Perhaps just to make things interesting I would have some native Filipinos join in the children's chorus in Act 2 so Coppola's reality with Puccini's opera cross over into a mish-mash of Kurtz-like semi-psychosis for the visionary director and have a Dennis Hopper look-a-like play Colline for the famous coat aria in Act 4. I should state this will be a very niche production for an audience of possibly only one aka me.

When Mimi finally dies and Rodolfo calls out her name in the tragic final moments I would add a perfect counterpoint for Coppola as he now finds the storm has abated and it's now safe for him to go back outside and direct his Vietnam masterpiece.

It's nothing if not original.

One final thought about the Coppola/Puccini connection. I've always been struck by how 'Boheme-like' parts of Nino Rota's score for 'The Godfather' is, especially Part 2 when Michael Corleone's (Al Pacino) returns to his lonely-looking Nevada compound accompanied by eerie music reminiscent of Act 3 of La Boheme outside the wintry tavern where Mimi and Marcello meet to discuss matters at hand.

Clearly, like me, Coppola is a Puccini nut and so, when the rain's pouring down the composer from Lucca is our preferred shelter from the storm.