'Quite a Good Director' Zeffirelli Honored by the Met

Over the weekend, Franco Zeffirelli, the famed Italian film, opera, and theater director best known for his 1968 film version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, was honored by the Metropolitan Opera for decades of groundbreaking service to the institution. The hosannas culminate today with a luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria. Stars from Mr. Zeffirelli's film and stage productions are slated to attend, including soprano Angela Gheorghiu and actors Jeremy Irons, Lynn Redgrave and Eli Wallach, cabaret legend Barbara Cook, designer Oscar de la Renta, and Cardinal Edward Egan, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York.

"I have always been full of doubts," Mr. Zeffirelli told The Associated Press, adding with a chuckle: "But in the end, I have to agree that I'm quite a good director."