California history unfolds along with the making of an opera in Jon Else‘s entrancing documentary. Returning to the work of composer John Adams and librettist/director Peter Sellars, the subjects of his film Wonders Are Many, Else peeks behind the curtain as the pair prepare their collaboration Girls of the Golden West for its 2017 San Francisco Opera premiere. Ostensibly a look at the nuts-and-bolts of production from informal rehearsals to glittering opening night, the documentary also investigates the Gold Rush era that inspired the show. Soprano Julia Bullock is mesmerizing, as the opera’s star and the film’s narrator, employing passages from a real-life diary to make vivid the boom-and-bust of a rapacious time.
Jon Else
Director
Public Speaking70%
Seduced and Abandoned62%
McQueen74%
Katy Perry: Part of Me71%
Hamilton's America66%
Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story62%
The Class of ‘9271%
In the Realms of the Unreal71%
Directed by John Ford70%
Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me84%
Lionel Messi: Destiny78%
John Candy: I Like Me78%
That's Entertainment! III70%
Casting By68%
A Plastic Ocean75%
Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds75%
Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition86%
Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return67%
The Making of Star Wars70%
Elstree 197661%
