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“She enjoys the kinds of intercourse that other women might find painful—she’s a real diva,” says Stefan Zucker of Italian mezzo Fedora Barbieri in the bizarre and often-hilarious documentary Opera Fanatic. The American Zucker, known as the “world’s highest tenor,” traipses about Italy to track down his favorite Italian divas from childhood and ask them about the golden days. Yet like many docs, this reissue of the 1999 gem, directed by Bavarian Schmidt-Garre, is less a probing look into its subject—postmenopausal dames—than a mesmerizing exposé of its interrogator—a sloven, obsessive opera buff. The film spends as much time on Zucker’s candid gossip with the crew as on the interviews.
Opera finds notable divas such as Anita Cerquetti, Carla Gavazzi, Leyla Gencer and Marcella Pobbe, among others. Throughout the film, Zucker’s shaggy wardrobe never changes, which makes one wonder about these ladies’ olfactory patience. Some flatly rebuke the oddball tenor: “These are stupid questions,” Pobbe exclaims, storming out of the interview after a prodding over a 1959 lovers’ quarrel. In another meeting, Zucker nearly gropes a septuagenarian Gencer. The movie thrives on his abundant clumsiness.
These gals radiate as they did on stage at La Scala 50 years ago, but their compelling personas are underutilized on screen. (Since shooting, most of these women, sadly, have passed.) Zucker asks each subject about “chest voices” and “expressive singing,” only to goad elderly legends into statements like, “I know sopranos who are in bed from morning to night!” Still, for folks who assume raunchy humor is anathema to classical music, this DVD’s a fine corrective.
