In 1997, The English Patient won a slew of Academy Awards and turned director Anthony Minghella into a household name. Minghella went on to make The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain, but this month he makes his American debut as an opera director, with his production of Madame Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera. Minghella tells Kurt Andersen why British theater critics wanted to “stab [him] with a needle.”
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