Movies from David Hockney

Puccini: La Bohème

Puccini’s timeless love story, which includes some of its composer’s most beloved music, has moved generations of opera lovers since its 1896 world premiere. It has also proved incredibly popular with the Met’s global HD audiences and has been featured in three live high-definition transmissions since 2008. The most recent, presented during the 2017–18 season, includes a cast of celebrated young artists. Soprano Sonya Yoncheva is the fragile seamstress Mimì, who instantly falls in love with the passionate poet Rodolfo, sung by tenor Michael Fabiano. Soprano Susanna Phillips and baritone Lucas Meachem trade both spars and kisses as the on-again-off-again lovers Musetta and Marcello, with bass Matthew Rose and baritone Alexey Lavrov rounding out the rambunctious gang of bohemian friends. Maestro Marco Armiliato takes the podium to lead Franco Zeffirelli’s picturesque staging.
David Hockney
Artist
Hockney saw his first performance of Puccini's La Boheme, performed by the Carl Rosa Opera Company. "It stuck in my mind" he recalls.
Movies from David Hockney

And the Ship Sails On

In 1914, a cruise ship sets sail from Naples to spread the ashes of beloved opera singer Edmea Tetua near Erimo, the isle of her birth. During the voyage, the eclectic array of passengers discovers a group of Serbian refugees aboard the vessel. Peace and camaraderie abound until the ship is descended upon by an Austrian flagship. The Serbians are forced to board it, but naturally they resist, igniting a skirmish that ends in destruction.
David Hockney
Artist
As popular as he is, the artist rarely follows popular consensus. Today, for example, Hockney derides movie critics for failing Fellini’s 1984 film And the Ship Sails On. Where it had taken Hockney four trips to the cinema to understand that it was “all about the screen,” the filmmaker’s foil to the artist’s canvas, most had only gone once. “The first reviews didn’t see the film at all!” he says. “They thought it was merely about the plot. It wasn’t, and I knew that.”