Christoph Waltz To Make Opera Debut (Don’t Worry, He’s Not Singing)

Christoph Waltz has decided to take a break from winning Academy Awards and direct his first opera production, according to a recent article in The Los Angeles Times.

The Quentin Tarantino favorite, who has appeared in Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained, will helm a new production of Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, the newspaper reported.

Speaking to the German language newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Waltz indicated that the production would debut on December 15. He also confirmed that it would take place at the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp, Belgium, in case any of you QT fans happen to be visiting overseas around that time.

Personally, it’s nice to see the actor branch out and try new things, following another Austrian-born great. Fellow countryman and Oscar winner Maximilian Schell has frequently taken his opera productions around the world.

Still, it would be a shame if Christoph Waltz goes all-in down this pathway when he’s just getting warmed up with Hollywood. While we have no problem with him scaring the hell out of stage actors for a bit, he’s too effective as a heavy to pull out of screen acting altogether.

Since 2009, he has played the antagonist in Inglourious Basterds, The Green Hornet, Water for Elephants, and The Three Musketeers with Django Unchained being the only case we could find that was remotely virtuous. His lurid interpretations of villainous roles add an element of danger that most films find it hard to replicate.

(No wonder those seem to be the roles he is offered the most.)

Here’s a clip of Waltz in Inglourious Basterds if you don’t believe us.

For now, Waltz isn’t giving up on acting altogether. According to his IMDb resume, he has The Zero Theorem and voice-work in Epic coming later this year, and then Big Eyes and Reykjavik slated for 2014.

Would you like to see Christoph Waltz direct opera, or do you prefer he stay in Hollywood full-time?

[Image via cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com]