AllMovie

Opera lovers may be especially appreciative of this version of Arnold Schoenberg's rarely seen one-act comic opera. Directors Daniele Huillet and Marie Straub shot their film in the formerly avant garde style of a Bertolt Brecht production, meaning that it's design is spare and formal; it is presented in a remote manner evocative of Schoenberg's modernist intellectual sensibilities. The opera is set on a soundstage, the camera positioned low and in the front as if it were filming from the proscenium; the stationary camera helps the audience focus on the opera without distraction. The story is about the argument between a wealthy couple who have just returned from a night of gaiety and socializing. The jealous husband (Richard Salter) accuses his wife (Christine Whittlesey) of flirting with a tenor. She accuses him of flirting with her friend. The combatants then engage in separate reveries of their potential new lovers. With the dawn however, the two reawaken and decide that they are much better off with each other. A live orchestra complements the singers.