Curtain rises on Cronenberg's opera retelling of The Fly

A Paris audience offered a warm welcome to filmmaker David Cronenberg, composer Howard Shore and famed tenor and conductor Placido Domingo's world premiere of the opera The Fly (La Mouche) Wednesday evening.

Playing at the city's illustrious Thtre du Chtelet until July 13, the contemporary opera is inspired by Cronenberg's 1986 classic film as well as the 1958 movie that was based on the story La Mouche Noire by French author George Langelaan.

Directed by Cronenberg and conducted by Domingo, The Fly starsCalgary-raised bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch as eccentric scientist Seth, who falls in love with journalist Veronica (portrayed by Romanian mezzo-soprano Ruxandra Donose). After a horrific mishap in his lab, Seth slowly and grotesquely transforms into a fly.

The opera features music by Shore and a libretto by Tony-winner David Henry Hwang (whose play M. Butterfly spawned a film version directed by Cronenberg).

Cronenberg finds horror fans open-minded

While some in the opera world have been eyeing The Fly warily, the Toronto-based Cronenberg told reporters earlier this week that horror fans have been among those most accepting of the production.

"It's ironic that fans of the genre, of horror films, don't find it such a jump to think of The Fly, the movie, as an opera even if they're not opera buffs themselves," he said at press conference in Paris.

"They recognize that sort of theatricality, that compression, that intenseness, intensity that one might associate with opera."

Cronenberg has also pointed out that the impetus for the opera was actually Shore, his longtime friend and perhaps best known for his Oscar-winning musical scores for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Shore had composed the music for Cronenberg's 1986 film and imagined it adapted for opera even back then, the director said.

"I love the characters," Shore said in Paris. "I wanted to write for a drama that I was familiar with, and that I had a certain inside view of."

After the Paris run, The Fly will travel to the Los Angeles Opera where Domingo is general director in September.