Castle and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, directed by filmmaker William Friedkin. Garry Marshall directed his own adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein in 2005. Friedkin returned to direct Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos in 2004 and, in 2008, the first two parts of Puccini's Il trittico, Il tabarro and Suor Angelica, a production that also featured Woody Allen making his operatic debut staging Gianni Schicchi. Highlights of the last decade have included Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny starring Anthony Dean Griffey, Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone, Rossini's Il turco in Italia starring Nino Machaidze Simone Alberghini, Paolo Gavanelli and Thomas Allen, and three major works by Benjamin Britten: The Turn of the Screw starring Patricia Racette, Albert Herring starring Alek Shrader in the title role, with Janis Kelly and Christine Brewer sharing the role of Lady Billows, and Billy Budd starring Liam Bonner, Richard Croft and Greer Grimsley. Notable guest performers Other frequent and notable guests with the company have included Samuel Ramey, Violeta Urmana, Hildegard Behrens, Denyce Graves, Frederica von Stade, Sumi Jo, Deborah Voigt, James Morris, Rod Gilfry, Jennifer Larmore, Maria Ewing, Susan Graham and Ferruccio Furlanetto. Company programs and features Recovered Voices project The company's multi-year project Recovered Voices, begun during the 2006-2007 season, is dedicated to presenting little known operas by the lost generation of composers whose lives and careers were cut short by the Third Reich. To date, the company has presented Alexander von Zemlinsky's Eine florentinische Tragödie (An Italian Tragedy) and Der Zwerg (The Dwarf), the U.S. premiere of Viktor Ullmann's Der zerbrochene Krug (The Broken Jug), Walter Braunfels' Die Vögel (The Birds) and the U.S. premiere of Franz Schreker's Die Gezeichneten (The Stigmatized) as part of this mission, as well as children's performances of Hans Krása's Brundibár. Der Ring des Nibelungen The company presented its first presentation of Richard Wagner's complete Der Ring des Nibelungen in the summer of 2010. New productions of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre were performed in early 2009, followed by Siegfried (September–October 2009) and Götterdämmerung (April 2010). Three full cycles were produced from May 29 through June 26, 2010, accompanied by the citywide Ring Festival LA. The innovative production was directed and designed by German theater artist Achim Freyer and conducted by James Conlon. The principal artists included Linda Watson, Vitalij Kowaljow, Michelle DeYoung, Plácido Domingo, John Treleaven, Graham Clark, Richard Paul