A Celebration of Artists Who Still Have More to Give

Read Time:5 Minute, 24 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Viva Verdi
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Genre: Documentary
Year Released: 2024
Runtime: 1h 18m
Director(s): Yvonne Russo
Where to Watch: shown at the E2AC Social Impact Film Series, Lincoln Center, New York, December 3, 2025

RAVING REVIEW: Some documentaries make it clear that they aren’t interested in spectacle. They’re interested in people—real, complicated people—whose lives contain more texture than any narrative could ever replicate. VIVA VERDI! belongs in that space. It isn’t a film about opera, though the walls of Casa Verdi vibrate with music. It isn’t simply an exploration of aging, though the residents range from their late seventies to past one hundred. It’s a portrait of a community shaped by creativity, remembrance, resilience, and a sense of purpose that refuses to dim with time.

At the center of the film is Casa Verdi, the retirement home Giuseppe Verdi built in 1896 with his fortune to care for the artists he felt society had forgotten. The intention behind the residence—both radical and compassionate for its time—still echoes through every hallway. When the documentary opens, the building feels alive, not from activity alone, but from the shared sense of identity among the singers, musicians, dancers, and conductors who call it home. The environment is striking in its own right: a grand Italian structure where history, memory, and performance blend with surprising ease.

Director Yvonne Russo approaches this world with a sensitivity that avoids sentimentality. She allows the residents to reveal themselves gradually, through casual conversations, small gestures, and the spark that still lights their eyes when music fills the room. These are artists who once graced opera stages and orchestras worldwide. Some survived the war. Some escaped persecution. Others endured personal tragedies that shaped their art. Yet the film never frames them as relics; instead, it makes them active participants in their own ongoing lives.

Throughout the documentary, international students live and train alongside the artists, forming a natural intergenerational exchange. This dynamic becomes one of the film’s most meaningful threads. Younger musicians learn technique, discipline, and depth from those who have weathered entire eras of artistic evolution. Meanwhile, the older residents gain a renewed sense of purpose, mentoring and engaging with a community that values their experience. There’s a spark in these interactions that feels genuine—no forced sentiment, just mutual respect and curiosity.

Russo resists the temptation to flatten the residents into their most triumphant stories. Instead, she shows moments of joy and melancholy side by side. Some recall careers filled with ovations, while others share memories shaped by hardship, discrimination, or upheaval. Their accounts are personal, vivid, and often surprising, reminding viewers that artists don’t stop being artists simply because they get older. The film never tries to wrap its histories in neat summaries; it recognizes that human lives rarely fit inside boxes.

The significance of music in their daily routines becomes clear in subtle ways—a resident’s hand tapping along to a piano piece. A vocalist in her nineties is demonstrating breath control that defies expectation. A room full of passion, all singing together with the same conviction they had in their twenties. The documentary suggests, without overstating, that music is more than expression here—it’s medicine, memory, and connection. It shapes the home's structure, transforming everyday activities into moments of personal renewal.

The documentary’s structure is looser than traditional biography-focused films, and it works to its advantage. Instead of narrowing its focus onto one or two central figures, it opens itself to the broader, communal identity of Casa Verdi. The house becomes a microcosm of what artistic life looks like when ego fades, and purpose remains. There is no vanity here—only people who have given their lives to art and refuse to let that passion recede.

One of the film’s most striking qualities is its view of aging. Rather than presenting it as a decline, VIVA VERDI! offers aging as a continuation—a possibility for reinvention, mentorship, and reflection. Its subjects do not cling to past glory; they live in the present, enriched by what came before but not defined solely by it. Russo’s approach invites viewers to consider that what society calls “the third act” may be more vibrant than the earlier ones, especially in environments that nurture creativity rather than try to restrict it.

Among the documentary’s more emotional moments are discussions about loss—loss of fellow performers, spouses, siblings, eras, and stages. Yet the tone never becomes bleak. Each story is framed by resilience rather than defeat. These artists survived tumultuous histories and maintained their relationship with music. Their willingness to share these experiences with younger musicians feels like a gift to the next generation.

VIVA VERDI! Stands as a reminder that creativity is not a phase of life but a lifelong current. Casa Verdi is proof that community, music, and purpose can make aging not a slow fading, but an encore. And the documentary captures that truth with clarity, empathy, and an honesty that lingers long after the final frame.

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[photo courtesy of SIMONSAYS ENTERTAINMENT, ARTEMIS RISING FOUNDATION, FOOTHILL PRODUCTIONS, LA MONTE PRODUCTIONS, PETER GLENVILLE FOUNDATION, THE HARNISCH FOUNDATION, VIVA VERDI]

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