Perhaps the most difficult thing is shooting scenes set 6,000 feet up in the mountains of Mexico.

In opera, everyone's watching from a fixed viewpoint, and that really challenges you. Lighting, the sets, stage groupings, the music-but doesn't relate too much to film.

With Cold Sassy Tree having its first production, I saw no necessity to do anything other than produce it with the correct setting.

It is essential to do everything possible to attract young people to opera so they can see that it is not some antiquated art form but a repository of the most glorious music and drama that man has created.

Everyone has seen photographs of Mexicans wearing those big sombreros. When you come to Mexico, the astonishing thing is, nobody wears these hats at all.

For a director, the most challenging scenes are the dialogue scenes.

In Australia, they set up a special fund to kick films off. It was quite an enlightened sort of move. You could go to this government bureau with scripts and and get finance for films.