Il Bacio di Tosca

This is a delight; worth seeking out if you have the chance and the inclination.

The Casa Verdi is a retirement home for aging and impecunious Italian opera singers. This is a documentary about the institution and some of its denizens in the early eighties.

Most documentaries about artists end up being a bit 'precious'. This is about a pack of old hams who know they're hams: they play to the camera, they 'find their lights' like old pros. There's a pecking order in the place, from the lowly chorus member sculling soup ("the chorus is the most important part of the opera company", she opines) right up to the near-star Sara Scuderi.

These people all have music and performing in their blood; it's a total part of their identities. Somehow it's a wonderful demonstration of how music gets under the skin of its performers, and never leaves them, even when the ability to perform it diminishes.

In the opera, "Tosca's Kiss" is the kiss of death; but this is a film about living.

We had seen this documentary when it was first released. It was a treat to watch it again recently. It is a joy to see all these old opera singers and musicians living in retirement at the house that Giuseppe Verdi, perhaps the world's best opera composer of all times, created for them to spend their last years. Daniel Schmid, the director, gives an encore to some of the residents at Casa Verdi when he made this documentary as a loving tribute to those that gave so much and are now forgotten. It is sad to think that most of the people in the documentary made in 1984 might not be with us any longer.

The film showcases Sara Scuderi, a soprano who was one of the best during her prime. Like most of the other people living at Casa Verdi, she shares some of her memories for us. Best of all is watching her listening to her own recording of Tosca, an opera that she obviously identifies herself with. One can't help but wonder what goes through her mind at that time. Perhaps, her appearances at La Scala, or the Colon in Buenos Aires? It must be hard for someone to find herself in that position after years of being acclaimed and in the limelight.

There are others like Leonida Bellon, who sings in quite a strong voice arias from operas in which he appeared. His encounter with Sara Scuderi in one of the hallways where she, as Tosca, kills him, who is supposed to be Scarpia, just like in a performance and both stay in character. We are given a tour of the personal belongings by Giuseppe Mancchini, who shows us his costumes he keeps well preserved at Casa Verdi. Giulietta Scimoniatto, a leading soprano who is much younger that the rest of the people we meet, shares some moments about the importance of maintaining this refuge for the older musicians.

Giovanni Puligheddu, a composer and the main conductor for all the singers in the residence, gives us a tour also of his many trophies and diplomas, and even gives a demonstration of one of his improvisations. For a man of his age, it is an amazing feat for him, or anyone else to be able to do what he does.

Thanks to Daniel Schmid we are given a glance of some of the singers that were at their prime during the first half of the twentieth century. These opera performers and musicians are now waiting for their final curtain surrounded by the music they adored.

Stumbling across this film, made in 1984 by Daniel Schmid, justified 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 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 such a bad retirement after all.

A moving and often very funny documentary. While it focuses on people who have "survived" and outlived an opera career, I think it has tremendous relevance for any of us in the performance/performing arts. There is much relevance here to the short span of a "good career", how older stars are pushed out by younger ones, while still in their prime.

The husband and wife team have a really eloquent moment of unspoken tension as he refuses to let her have the limelight and ultimately steals the camera from her face as she resignedly looks to the director for help. I would have loved to hear more of what she had to say without the ham present.

My only quibble is that the harpist is unidentified although she is interviewed, and she is also not identified in the bonus materials.

I plan to give this DVD as a gift to two people. One marvelous side effect is wanting to look up recordings of these singers. Some of them still have moving powerful voices, imagine them at the height of their skill!

"Tosca's Kiss" is a documentary about elderly opera singers living in a specialized old people's home for opera singers and musicians. Now forgotten, but once noted performers remember their careers.

However the film is as much about old age as the theatre; as each performer introduced, talks about what they achieved in their careers; as well as what they couldn't achieve and the goals they couldn't achieve. In a holistic sense this film is about life.