One of the posters on this board described this as something for opera fans, and another said it was "built around opera."
"The Great Lover" stars Adolphe Menjou as Jean Paurel,an operatic baritone who loves women. Diana Page (Irene Dunne) idolizes him and wants to study with him, and he takes her on, with the objective of taking advantage of her. Meanwhile, another baritone is in love with her (Neil Hamilton, who became the commissioner on the TV show Batman), and she is resisting him.
Paurel finds himself falling for this young woman and becoming engaged to her. When Paurel loses his voice one night, his understudy is Diane's ex-boyfriend. What will happen? Does Diane truly love Paurel, or is she just bewitched by what he can do for her?
This isn't much of a story, obviously, and as far as opera, if you're going to do it, do it right because the fans of opera aren't going to like it.
Dunne had a very pretty voice, but being trained in the old school, she has a quick vibrato and backs off the high notes. She sings part of La ci darem la mano from Don Giovanni, part of Je veux vivre from Romeo & Juliet, and part of Una Voce Poco Fa from Barbiere di Siviglia. The Je veux vivre was stopped before the showy part as if it was the end of the aria. All the baritone knew was the phrase "La ci darem la mano" - and that's it.
To top it off, it is announced that she will be playing Donna Elvira, but when she makes her Metropolitan Opera debut, it is in -- guess - Don Giovanni in the role of Zerlina, which instead of the third female lead, is now the lead, and she bows with Menjou. Forget Donna Anna and Donna Elvira, I guess they were with the chorus somewhere.
With such a slight story and such unsatisfying opera, I didn't care for it.