A thirty-year friendship unites Christine La Monte and Yvonne Russo, producers and screenwriters of VIVA VERDI!, with Russo also serving as director. Their documentary tells the story of Casa Verdi, the historic retirement home for opera singers and musicians founded in Milan in 1896 by Giuseppe Verdi himself. Inside the neo-Gothic building on Piazza Buonarroti, elderly residents teach young students who also live there.
The exchange is educational, but above all human. The elders range in age from 77 to 107, while the students are all over 18 and come from all over the world. After screenings in Los Angeles and New York, La Monte and Russo spoke with La Voce di New York ahead of the official Oscar nominations.
