The Opera House (2017) User Reviews

Title doesn't sound good, but the movie is great!

[Red-125 · 9/10 · 25 December 2020]

The Opera House (2017) is a full-length documentary directed by Susan Froemke. The title sounds like it would be a boring movie, but it's not. That's because the film is centered around the great soprano, Leontyne Price.

The movie starts with the old Metropolitan Opera House, and then moves through the decades-long attempt to find a suitable site for the new Metropolitan. (Robert Moses pushed this through, for better or for worse depending on your point of view.)

In any case, we know how it all ends, but it's a fascinating story leading up to opening night at the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center.

If you see the movie on DVD, be sure to watch the special--Leontyne Price in her farewell Aida performance at the Met.

Not many people have rated or reviewed this movie. However, based on small numbers, it has a solid IMDb rating of 7.7. I thought it was even better than that and rated it 9.

A first-rate documentary

[richard-1787 · 10/10 · 30 September 2018]

This is really a magnificent documentary. Why? A combination of lots of great old photographs, extremely intelligent use of operatic music, and a good choice of interviewees well-edited. (Yes, Lyontine Price is the best of them. She is really wonderful in this movie.)

If you have any interest in the Metropolitan Opera, and if you heard Saturday afternoon broadcasts in the 1960s with Price, Corelli, and the rest of the great singers of that era, you will really enjoy this movie.

At the end, after the conclusion of the documentary proper, we get to watch and hear Price sing "O Patria Mia" from her farewell Met performance in 1985. No, the voice was not as lush as back in the 1960s. But those high notes, including the last one, are rock steady, the result of a lot of hard work, study, and practice. I thought to myself: How many sopranos have we heard from the Met in their later years who were no doubt still fine actresses but whose voices wobbled terribly? Not here. Not at all. This was a great voice that went out great.