"Everything we express with our voice results from our desire to
come closer to another person.
There is no voice without love, and the singing voice is the
highest possible expression of love,"
says the celebrated German New Wave filmmaker Werner Schroeter,
also renowned as a director
of opera and theater. Schroeter, who recalls that "hearing
Maria Callas sing for the first time at
the age of fourteen changed my life," invited a number of
his favorite opera singers to bringalong
the people they love and join him at a medieval monastery near
Paris.
Gathered for this filmic retreat are such superstars of today's
opera world as Laurence Dale and
SergeĽ LarĽn (along with their male lovers), and legendary divas
including the "muse of FurtwSngler"
Martha Msdl, and Rita Gorr accompanied by her (female) partner
of many years.
Anita Cerquetti, the most hailed dramatic soprano since Callas,
appears for the first time since leaving
the stage at the height of her career at age twenty-nine after
an illness. Together, they speak--and
sing--of love.
Love--the
desire to come closer to another person--has many objects. There
are as many forms
of love as there are individual lives. What
is certain is that all love is equal, and sacred. Love is the
supreme mystery, which is why its pursuit is never ending. Schroeter
says of this film, his offering
to the "beloved spirit" of Maria Callas, "it is
me myself."
This film will be distributed in Japan by Cetera
International, opening at Box Higashi-Nakano on Saturday June 13.
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