Hockney has designed scenery, costumes, and lighting for 11 operas, including Puccini's Turandot for the Chicago Lyric and San Francisco operas, and Parade, a series of one-act operas by Satie, Poulenc, and Ravel, for the Metropolitan Opera.

In 1992, Hockney worked on a production of Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten at Covent Garden which proved to be his last opera. He had gradually been going deaf, and after the completion of the project, it became clear he could no longer work with music.

The artist's lighting schemes, choreographed on miniature version of the set, worked closely with the score's orchestration.

"I wanted to design operas because I want to have something to look at," he said.

The film runs through April 19.