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Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola has grown up in the public eye. And she's reincarnated herself more than a few times: The precocious kid tagging along on her father's movie shoots became the stylish teen, an avatar of '90s cool, and then, seemingly without skipping a beat, transformed into the world-class director of films such as The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation. Coppola's latest incarnation, meanwhile, was galvanized by Mr. Valentino and Mr. Giammetti, who invited Coppola to try her hand at directing an opera. Their lauded collaboration on Verdi's La Traviata had a sell-out run in Rome last year, and last month, opened for another span of shows in Valencia, Spain.

 

Although La Traviata marked Coppola's first time working with Mr. Valentino and Mr. Giammetti, the trio's friendship goes back much further. Back in 2000, for instance, she and then-husband Spike Jonze made an appearance at the Maison Valentino 40th anniversary party in Los Angeles. More than a decade later, on the opposite coast, she turned up at the house's special Sala Bianca show in New York. Meanwhile, the fandom is mutual: It was Mr. Valentino and Mr. Giammetti's shared appreciation for Coppola's movie Marie Antoinette that inspired them to seek her out for Traviata. It wasn't just her terrific taste and ability to modernize period trappings that appealed to them, though—as Coppola noted, in an interview with The New York Times, the story of Verdi heroine Violetta is one that resonates with her, and through much of her work. "The party girl used to the social scene…it's a very feminine world that I love," she explained. Mr. Valentino and Mr. Giammetti would undoubtedly say the same.

 

 
Photo by Yasuko Kugeyama

Photo by Yasuko Kugeyama

Photo by Yasuko Kugeyama

Photo by Yasuko Kugeyama

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