Director Zeffirelli misses gala event at new Florence museum

Tenor Andrea Bocelli, center left, and composer Nicola Piovani, center right, acknowledge applause as they perform with the "Voices of Haiti" children's choir during the gala concert that inaugurates the Franco Zeffirelli International Center For Performing Arts, in Florence, Italy, Monday, July 31, 2017. The center, besides its educational activities, brings together the entire artistic and cultural patrimony of the Italian director's almost 70-year career, including over ten thousand books from his personal library, thousands of professional documents and notes, designs, sketches, scripts, screenplays and storyboards, as well as a substantial collection of photographs of his works from the post-war years to present days. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

By Associated Press July 31, 2017 1 min read

FLORENCE, Italy (AP) – Tenor Andrea Bocelli and a Haitian children’s choir have inaugurated the Franco Zeffirelli International Center of the Performing Arts in Italy, though the eponymous 94-year-old film and theater director’s ill health meant he had to miss the gala event.

Organizers said Zeffirelli’s health did not permit him to travel from his home in Rome to his native Florence for the gala event Monday ahead of the museum’s opening next month. They did not specify the ailments, but Zeffirelli has long suffered side effects after a hip surgery.

British actor Robert Powell, who appeared in Zeffirelli’s 1977 mini-series “Jesus of Nazareth,” was among those at the celebration.

The museum and performing arts center will display some 500 sketches of production sets that Zeffirelli made during his long career.