https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/movies/bel-canto-opera-movies-julianne-moore.html
By Michael Cooper
Sept. 7, 2018
“Bel Canto” is the rare film that does not use opera to comment ironically on bloodshed, or signal sinister depravity, or provide the sonic equivalent of a heart-shaped box of chocolates in a moment of slightly cloying Valentine’s Day-style romance. Mixing elements of thriller and romantic drama, “Bel Canto” is not exactly an opera film. But it uses music as character and catalyst, a vital force uniting artist and fan, hostage and guerrilla, plutocrat and revolutionary.
“It’s about the power of art to humanize,” the star soprano Renée Fleming, who recorded the arias by Dvorak and Puccini that Ms. Moore lip-syncs to in the film, said in an interview.