David Cronenberg: "I think people’s perception of what I do is actually quite distorted. "

Be afraid, be very afraid ... of the opera? Yes, when that most highbrow of musical experiences swan dives into the macabre with The Fly, a classical reimagining of cult film auteur David Cronenberg’s 1986 sci-fi terror masterpiece. The Fly buzzes into the Los Angeles Opera this month after a controversial Paris debut, directed by Cronenberg himself. That this Canadian iconoclast outraged with his first opera attempt is no surprise: he’s famed, to his chagrin, as the premier eminence of “body horror.” Everyone from cyberpunks to Chuck Palahniuk owes their nipple rings to Cronenberg’s transgression, so to see him collaborating with mainstream opera avatar Plácido Domingo (The Fly’s conductor) is, well, shocking.