The Unfettered Critic – May 2019

With the Britt Festival’s new season just around the corner, we find ourselves jittery with anticipation. “Music,” they say, “hath charms to sooth the savage beast.” We agree, but that suggests music of the hear (see what we did there?) and now. So what, we asked ourselves, can we do to be soothed during the weeks till that glorious day when tour buses begin queuing up on Main Street?

Why, practice, of course.

That’s what musicians do prior to their performances, right? So we decided to practice being audience members by watching movies about musicians. And, with easy access to the web, we can do it lounging in our La-Z-Boys! It’s brilliant!

We didn’t have to look long to find qualified movies. Just last year, the Oscar contenders included the Queen bio-flick Bohemian Rhapsody (with an Oscar-winning performance by Rami Malek), A Star is Born (with an Oscar-winning song by Lady Gaga), Best Picture winner Green Book, about concert pianist Don Shirley, and the less awarded but more fanciful Mama Mia! Here We Go Again. But just as we were about to delve into those musical treats, we noticed a movie on Netflix that we’d missed back in 2013: Quartet. It fits perfectly into a category of irresistible (to us) productions that aren’t based on comic books—a rarity these days—classics like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Gosford Park, Shirley Valentine, and Downton Abbey. All of them make our hearts sing, but Quartet does them one better: it sings to us. And what glorious music it makes!

The film is based on Ronald Harwood’s (The Dresser) 1999 play about the residents of a “retirement home for older musicians.” First-time director Dustin Hoffman (yes, you read that correctly) populated the home with real-life retired singers, violinists, cellists, clarinetists, trumpet players, and pianists. Throughout the movie, as the soundtrack soothes and soars, the musicians are right there on the screen. And did we mention that it’s a love story? See how this just gets better and better?

So what is Quartet about? Once upon a time, a quartet of great singers gained worldwide acclaim for their performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto.” But, as these things generally go, “the band broke up” when diva Jean, played by Dame Maggie Smith (we weren’t kidding when we suggested Downton Abbey), cheated on her husband Reginald, played by Tom Courtenay (Doctor Zhivago, The Dresser). Reg and his fellow singers—slightly addled Sissy (Pauline Collins of Shirley Valentine) and the randy Wilf (Billy Connolly of Mrs. Brown)—are happily settled into the retirement home, when Jean unexpectedly shows up and moves in. Still heartbroken after all these years, Reginald is not about to accept his ex-wife as a neighbor. But, as luck would have it, the financially struggling facility is about to hold a fundraiser: an evening of music provided by its residents. With a bit of urging, members of the once-famed quartet agree to perform their even more famous “Quartet” from “Rigoletto”—and therein lies a story, a concert, and a wonderful reconciliation.

Did this story of musicians’ travails satisfy our musical needs? You bet. With performances that include “The Flowers that Bloom in Spring” and several others from Gilbert and Sullivan’s repertoire, Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor,” Haydn’s “String Quartet in B flat major,” the delightful pop tune “Are You Having Any Fun,” plus a dozen other perfect selections, we were humming all the way to our toothbrushes.

Of course, we’re still anxiously awaiting the Britt opening. And aging while doing so. But, ah, we feel slightly soothed for the nonce.