Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A magnificent oportunity to dream, April 3, 2001
The characters are real. The lives they once shared were first class. Their passion for, and love of, opera and musical art lives strong in their hearts, their voices and their everyday selves. It's an honor to listen to their stories, to hear their voices strong as ever, and to experience the love for musical expression they shared with the world so long ago, and still do in this film. This movie is worthy of inclusion in the best operatic collections!
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Vissi d'arte incarnate!, March 16, 2006
Stumbling across this film, made in 1984 by Daniel Schmid, justifies my Netflix bill for an entire year. In today's youth-obsessed culture, where we are eager to shower even the least talented with untold wealth, it is poignant to see artists who have given their very lives for music enduring retirement at Casa di Riposo Verdi in Milan. But enduring on their own terms - you cannot hold an opera stage without a supreme sense of self. Their daily world is full of music and reminiscences of past glories.
There are so many bittersweet moments in the film: Giuseppe Manachini proudly displaying his worn costumes that spark his memory; Sara Scuderi raptly listening to a 1940's recording of herself as Tosca; Giovanni Puligheddu proffering his musical credentials; Leonida Bellon encountering Scuderi in a hallway and launching into Act II of Tosca, in the end receiving "il bacio di Tosca". The Casa Verdi staff, happily and humorously, treat these histrionics as normal behavior.
Shamefully, I know nothing about any of these musicians who shared the stage with such giants as Callas, Gigli, and Simionato, but you only have to witness Scuderi's snatches of Vissi d'arte, in a remarkably preserved voice, to realize the individuality and personality of her Tosca - and that she is no "povera donna, sola, abbandonata in questo popoloso deserto"; Floria is always with her. Maybe not a bad retirement after all.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful film!, January 30, 2005
This review is from: Tosca's Kiss - Il bacio di Tosca (DVD)
A warm, bitter-sweet documentary. You have to watch it if you are a singer, you should watch it if you wish to understand what being a singer is about.
This Masterpiece doesn't ignore the difficulties and eccentricities of the inhabitants of this old musicians' home but it shows them with a lot of respect and love.
You will have to shed a tear at moments, laugh in amazement at others.
The extras are good as well: an interesting interview with the director and audio tracks from a 1948 recording of one of the main characters.
Highly recommended!
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