User Reviews

Il Bacio Di Tosca or "Tosca's Kiss" (1984): Starring Sara Scuderi, Giuletta Simionato, Giuseppe Manacchini, Salvatore Locapo, Leonida Bellon, Giovanni Puligheddu....Director Daniel Schmid, Screenplay Daniel Schmid, Produced By Marcel Hoehn, Hans Ulrich Jordi, Cinematography Renato Berta, Production Design Raul Gimenez.

Director Daniel Schmid's 1984 Italian documentary "Tosca's Kiss" has its ups and downs but it's a real treat for the devoted opera enthusiast and opera buff, which, surprisingly, is no longer a minority in America, although the art form has always enjoyed greater success in Europe. Daniel Schmid takes us to Milan, Italy, circa 1983-1984 where he was allowed to film inside the Casa Verdi "Verdi Retirement House", a building that was actually designed and supervised by the grand 19th century Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi himself. The historic building with spacious rooms and a museum which contains busts of Verdi as well as old photographs, is home to a number of retired opera singers from the 20th century. It's possible that, now, in 2006, many of these veteran opera singers are dead. But it's also very likely the Casa Verdi still continues to house retired opera singers. The soprano Sara Scuderi, who sang with Beniamino Gigli, a top tenor of the 20's and 30's, was herself a big name but is now largely forgotten. She clearly loves the camera and spotlight on her and despite her age, hams it up and steals the show with excerpts from Puccini's Tosca, a role she had made her own. The interview with Scuderi reveals a great deal about the world of opera and the music scene from the pre-World War II and World War II Era. But the real star of the documentary is the more renowned Giuletta Simionato, a mezzo-soprano who enjoyed a brilliant career and sang opposite the world's most famous diva Maria Callas. Names in the opera biz are dropped excessively- names like Enrico Caruso, Mario Del Monaco, Renata Tebaldi, providing this documentary with a kind of educational quality. Phonographs that play opera records and old press photographs, costumes and most importantly people who lived for opera in the difficult days of Nazi Europe and Fascist Italy are all part of this marvelous documentary. But with that said, the documentary suffers from a length that is frankly, too long and therefore boring. We feel ourselves getting older as we watch the these very old people (in their 80's and 90's) and their supremely slow movements, especially when they walk down long corridors. Plus, there is very little in the documentary that most opera fanatics don't already know. This is still a great documentary but you have to have the discipline, intellect and musical appreciation to really enjoy it. It's a trip back to the 80's and to a world of singers and musicians whose glory days are far behind them and who remember them to escape the rapidly modern world who does not need them and to keep from being depressed. We are genuinely moved by their stories and this is what a truly great documentary should aim to do. Especially emotional are such scenes as when Sara Scuderi hears her old record of Tosca (her favorite aria is "Vissi D'Arte) when she and the still very strong tenor Giuseppe Manachi sing duets or when he sings solo arias, to the entire house singing "Va Pensiero" from Nabucco and the Brindisi from Traviata. This is one for the opera lover who is getting older and wiser in his or her appreciation for the art form.