Being an aficionado on Verdi I watched this film with great pleasure and was only slightly disappointed.I was not concerned about the implausibilities of the plot where well to do ex opera singers are worried about the closure of their retirement home unless they can perform the quartet from Rigoletto before rigamortis sets in on all of them. Joe Green himself had spent a lot of his fortune building a rest home for old musicians in Milan and when he died at the same time as Queen Victoria it was the main news in newspapers all over the world even more than Vicky's was in Jan 2001. What was lacking in this film was a bit more humorous pathos. Maggie Smith as usual held it all together but I had a feeling that after a short while Dustin Hoffman had to tell Billy Connely that he was not doing a stand up show in Glasgow. It was a shame that Albert Finney was not well enough to play the part of the hunchback court jester. Nevertheless Connely was still very adequate as were the rest of the cast and it was great to see Tom Courtenay again. I am no scriptwriter as you can see from this effort, but there are so many great one liners one can bring into an operatic film.And if one does not find things like " Its not the Barber of Seville" with us any more,more like the "Bubba of Seville". Or not many people knew that Verdi was Jewish and that " A Masked Ball" was originally " A Matzoh Ball" . I reiterate I am a lousy writer, but maybe you get my point.