DVD SCHLUSSAKKORD-ACCORDO FINAL (1960)

Del Monaco belongs to the 3 post WWII tenors who made most movie pictures for the general public, the two others are American Mario Lanza and the German Rudolf Schock. These films made Del Monaco a household name to the non-operagoing public as well. In fact Schlussakkord was also given several TV screenings until the early eighties when the musical film was banished to post midnight schedules on obscure television stations. Now at long last the film has been made available on the DVD medium at the very reasonable price of 12 Euros. The plot worthy of a dramatic opera involves the Salzburg Festival, an alcoholic composer doutbful of his own talents and a star tenor who's willing to rescue the performance and gets "involved" with the composer's wife.
Del Monaco acts and sings in the film. Two popular songs (Verro and Bella Linda) were especially written for him and were later issued on a now extremely rare 45 rpm record by Decca. He also sings quite a lot from the composer's 'world premiered' opera "Peon Messiah" music written by Georges Auric. Auric was a composer who studied with Vincent d'Indy and who later became a member of Cocteau's group 'les six'. He was also responsible for the soundtracks of Moulin Rouge and Roman Holiday amongst others. Auric also became the director the Paris Opéra in 1962 after which his career as a composer came to a halt.
A strong cast was assembled for the movie as the composer's wife is played by Eleanor Rossi-Drago and the Karajan look-alike conductor is played by Victor De Kowa. Remarkable is also the casting of Ljuba Welitsch in a non-singing role as Del Monaco's "Haushaelterin"!
The movie in itself is of much better quality than the general musical films not only because of its screen plot, the text, the music, the settings and the high quality casting but mainly of its direct nostalgic appeal as it is so typical of its time. You can order the film through kontakt@melos-media.de (English spoken and paypal accepted.)

Rudi van den Bulck, Operanostalgia