An Inconvenient Truth ain’t over, people. The Fat Lady is doing her warm-ups. What can only be sopranos singing about emissions, electric vehicles and birds with tar on their feathers, is an opera currently in pre-production that is now facing some adversity. La Scala opera house in Milan has been working the opera version of Al Gore’s documentary, slated to open in the 2011 season.

Italian composer Giorgio Battistelli is helming the project in hopes to draw more attention to the world’s environmental issues. Battistelli, who is the artistic director of Verona’s Arena Foundation, is a prolific composer of operas who has turned works by Shakespeare (Richard III), Jules Verne, Mary Shelley (Frankenstein) and Pasolini (Theorem) into operatic performances. For this production, Battistelli is teaming up with poet J.D. McClatchy and director William Friedkin.

However, Ecorazzi is reporting that there’s drama on the set! Friedkin recently quit the production, citing “creative differences.”  McClatchy claims that the reasons for Friedkin’s departure were personal and mocked Friedkin for wanting to use special effects, saying “opera isn’t Hollywood.”