Tosca's Kiss

The clear voices of a group of opera singers echo through the interior of an elegant, old-fashioned residence. Watched over by the vigilant gaze of the concierge and attended to by a few members of staff, egotistical sopranos, nun-like harpists and eccentric musicians spin out the idle days of their old age in a rest home founded in Milan by the composer Giuseppe Verdi. In a rarefied atmosphere set off perfectly by the wintry light, the series of tiny events that make up each day unfolds – visits from one room to another, singing together, practicing individually. Actions take over from words and the time-worn protagonists of Italian opera embody anew the characters they so often performed: the passions of Tosca and Rigoletto color their cheeks and warm their voices, leaving Daniel Schmid once again transfixed as the spectator of the power of the theater over all who have "loved the stage and lived the art of performance." (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)