‘An Inconvenient Truth’ Gets the Operatic Treatment

Just when it seemed like Al Gore couldn’t reassert his international stature any further comes word that An Inconvenient Truth is getting turned into an opera. Seriously. Currently in planning stages for the 2011 season at Italy’s Milan opera home, the new work will undoubtedly carry the same tone of global peril that the ersatz vice president enforces in the film, even though one imagines they’ll probably do away with some of the dry Power Point material. It’s not the most practical choice for an adaptation, that’s for sure: The way it’s assembled in the film, Gore’s lecture manages to engage a diverse audience, while the guy comes off as assertive and witty, which makes you wonder what sort of president he would have made — but that singular charm doesn’t necessarily translate into the sort of theatrics demanded by a big stage spectacle.

It’s too early to get any sense for the final product, but for now, the conceit sounds like ridiculous fodder for a Saturday Night Live sketch, and it’s hard to imagine anything but a parody of the source (consider the infamous case of Jerry Springer: The Opera). Personally, I have the ability to see the revamped An Inconvenient Truth taking a cue from Wagner’s Ring Cycle and setting the stage ablaze around the main character in a horrific look-what-might-happen finale as a team of green-friendly celebrities chant “Give us Gore” from stage left, their pathetic words drowned out by a deafening orchestral surge … but maybe that’s pushing it. via[cinematical]

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