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By
FRANK BEHRENS
Who wants to see a film
about old people, asks director Daniel Schmid in a
special feature to the DVD "Tosca's Kiss." Well,
if those old people are retired opera stars living
at the Casa Verdi, founded especially for them and
those like them, you have a lovely 87-minute film
that shows their daily lives, still devoted
entirely to opera and sharing their memories. Also
sharing their voices, many of which have lasted
surprisingly well through the years.
Chief among the old-timers at the foundation is
soprano Sara Scuderi, sort of a queen bee, as it
seems, whose presence ties the film together.
Anyone interested in opera must see this, and
anyone who simply likes to watch senior citizens
refusing to go gently into that good night should
see this.
I read on the back that there are three CD tracks
and some DVD-ROM features -- most annoying to
those without personal computers and those with
them but without the required hardware and
software -- but I could not bring up either of
them even after having Adobe Acrobat installed, as
well as the proper DVD-reading hardware installed,
at great expense. A bad direction for companies to
take just to save some paper. But even without
those elusive extras, this film is certainly worth
the seeing. |
