Woody Allen to direct LA opera: 'I have no idea what I'm doing'

LOS ANGELES -- Woody Allen, directing an opera? In Los Angeles?

It will happen in September 2008, according to Placido Domingo, general director of the Los Angeles Opera.

The New York-based filmmaker will make his operatic directorial debut with the opening event of the LA Opera's 2008-2009 season.

"I have no idea what I am doing," Allen said in a statement Thursday. "But incompetence has never prevented me from plunging in with enthusiasm."

Allen is scheduled to direct "Gianni Schicchi," part of Puccini's "Il Trittico," a trio of one-act operas.

The two other operas, "Il Tabarro" and "Suor Angelica," will also have a movie director, William Friedkin ("The Exorcist," "The French Connection").

Domingo stated that he had often pursued movie directors to try their hand at opera. It took him four years, his longest such pursuit, to get Allen to say yes.

"Gianni Schicchi," set in medieval Florence, is Puccini's only comedy, according to an LA Opera news release.

"To have Woody Allen direct 'Gianni Schicchi' is a match made in heaven," said Friedkin in a statement.