French Critics Swat The Fly

French opera critics have slated movie composer HOWARD SHORE's new adaptation of DAVID CRONENBERG's cult movie THE FLY, calling the production "boring" and "unimaginative".

The new opera - Shore's first - opened at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris last week (02Jul08), and even conductor Placido Domingo and Cronenberg as the production's director failed to wow hardline critics.

Le Figaro's Christian Merlin writes, "At the intermission, an hour into the two-hour show, one is already so bored as to strongly suspect the presence of the parasitical tsetse fly (which spreads sleeping sickness)."

And Le Monde's Renaud Machart suggests the production sounds "dutiful, unimaginatively orchestrated, often covering voices."