Pop goes the opera

In Britain, "Prima Donna" by the pop-music singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright is panned by The Guardian's Andrew Clements as "the work of a man who loves opera and the sensations it delivers, without understanding how it is paced, or how it generates dramatic tension" . . .

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/apr/13/prima-donna-review

. . . while the English National Opera has tapped Monty Python alumnus-turned-filmmaker Terry Gilliam to direct a staged version of Berlioz's "The Damnation of Faust," and Mike Figgis, director of the 1995 film "Leaving Las Vegas," to direct Donizetti's "Lucrezia Borgia," the BBC reports:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8622096.stm