ROME: Italian film director and opera director Franco Zeffirelli has died at the age of 96. He directed the world’s greatest opera singers and brought Shakespeare to the cinema-going masses. In a statement, his foundation said he died in Rome on Saturday. “Ciao Maestro,” said the announcement.
Zeffirelli was the last of a generation of Italian film giants who came of age after World War Two, including Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica. He directed more than two dozen films, working with stars including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, Alec Guinness, Faye Dunaway, and Jon Voight.
In a 2013 interview to mark his 90th birthday, he said the general public would remember him most for his 1968 film of “Romeo and Juliet,” the 1977 television mini-series “Jesus of Nazareth,” and “Brother Sun, Sister Moon,” his 1972 film tribute to St. Francis of Assisi. (Agencies)
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