Ed Lachman and the Cinematography of Maria

Opera and cinema are very similar… Opera's images are not representational either. Like cinema. And they create the subtext for the emotions of the story. And what helps to create the nonverbal form of communication is the same thing that happens in music of the opera. It's a heightened reality… I felt the film could be a representation if her life, mirrored in the operas that she sang in. And even though people say she was the sum of the tragedies of the opera she sang, I believe she had the resistance and strength to overcome.