Tosca's Kiss

Shortly before his death, Giuseppe Verdi created the "Casa di Riposo" (quite literally, "rest home") in Milan for retired opera singers. For many years, the house was funded by royalties from Verdi's operas, so the musicians who served his work so faithfully could spend their waning years in a comfortable and appreciative environment. Il Bacio di Tosca is a documentary film about life in the Casa di Riposo as it was in 1984. It is likely that the dozen or so singers whom we meet in this film – all of them physically frail to varying degrees – are no longer among the living in 2004, but Il Bacio di Tosca reminds us of the Latin phrase Vita brevis, ars longa – life is short, art endures. The film centers around Sara Scuderi, a soprano who was a prominent interpreter of verismo roles in the 1940s. As a resident of the Casa di Riposa, the elderly Madame Scuderi spends her days talking to other residents, looking back on her career, and singing in a voice that is aged but still unmistakably grand. Somewhat short of breath, she is still capable of granting a visitor's request for her to sing "Vissi d'arte" from Tosca, which was her signature role. (She walks the halls of the Casa still holding Tosca's prop cane, but now more by necessity than for dramatic effect.)