Christoph Waltz: ‘I direct operas to be close to music’

Actor Christoph Waltz directs operas as a way to feed his music obsession.
The Django Unchained star loves music but admits he is not the musician he would dearly like to be – so he finds joy in creating great works as a filmmaker.
“I don’t really play (an instrument) to that degree and I love music with a passion that is sometimes worrying,” he told breakfast show Today on Monday (04Feb19), “and the closest I can get to it is by cheating myself in via directing an opera.”
Waltz directed his first opera – a production of Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier – in 2013, and has since helmed Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff and Pelleas et Melisande for Opera Vlaanderen in Antwerp, Belgium.
In addition to his operatic projects, Waltz has also stepped behind the camera to direct TV movie Wenn man sich traut and upcoming film Georgetown.