Quartet (2012)

From NetFlix:

A trio of retired opera singers’ annual celebration of Verdi’s birthday sours when their estranged fourth member shows up but refuses to sing. Tensions rise and diva drama erupts — will personal problems prevent the show from going on?

Do not confuse this British film with the American film A Late Quartet.

Maggie Smith (“Downton Abbey”), Tom Courtenay (“The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”), Billy Connolly (Thomas Bell in “House M.D.”), and Pauline Collins (“Shirley Valentine”) form the quartet of retired opera singers. Michael Gambon (Professor Albus Dumbledore in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”) is a self-appointed impresario.

They and a large group of retired musicians reside in a beautiful palace-like home for retired musicians set in glorious British countryside. In fact, the other aged actors are real-life retired musicians. Stay for the final credits in which you see for many of these characters a double set of photos: one photo from the present paired with a photo of them in their performing prime.

If nothing else, the scenery is gorgeous and well worth seeing the film on a large screen as we did in a movie house. Additionally the music is wonderful. Although the story is a bit melodramatic, it is still worth the watch.

Enjoy!

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