I’ve Fallen for Figaro

Not News so Much as a Movie Review

Photo by Photoholgic on Unsplash

Opera is high drama, but it’s hard to make a drama about opera. The musical Billy Elliot which revolves around a plucky working class boy from the North of England who becomes a ballet star is based on the life of Sir Thomas Allen who I met when he was doing an opera master class. Because he’s an opera singer. Not a ballet dancer. But it would have been difficult to explain the work of becoming an opera singer in a visual medium because although it’s every bit as intense as becoming a ballet dancer and involves development and maintenance of muscles and your body in general, it’s much more internal. Watching someone doing breathing exercises isn’t generally as visually stimulating as watching someone dance.

So, I cannot tell you how appreciative I was of the Netflix movie Falling for Figaro. This will be a rave review.

I was turned onto it by my singing teacher, so that’s the first sign that it’s going to be amazing. But … okay well if you’ve read my stuff you may have read my review of An Interlude in Prague. That was mostly a rave as well. I did really enjoy it. With the very notable exception of the absolute screechy dying cat noises made by Samantha Barks when she utterly mangled “Porgi Amor”. Honestly, I’m giving that woman no quarter. She does musical theatre; she should have known better…