Going for Broke

The Graham Vicks production of FALSTAFF opened the new Covent Garden Royal Opera House, and was not to everybody's taste; the garish primary colours of the costumes. The staging is effective--the complicated counterpoint of the ensembles is reflected in unobtrusive blocking that keeps the vocal lines clear and separate, especially in the final fugue. Bryn Terfel's Falstaff is a memorable creation, self-mocking and self-aggrandising at the same time--so much so, in fact, that he almost does not need the vast prosthetic body he has to wear for the part. Desiree Rancatore is an admirably sweet-toned Nanetta; Bernadette Manca di Nissa an appropriately sardonic Mistress Quickly; Roberto Frontali as Ford, in his Act 2 scena, perfectly distils and parodies every jealousy aria ever written, including Verdi's own. Haitink's conducting is exemplary in the lyrical passages, gets almost everything out of the fast and furious comic sections.

A very successful stock broker is called to court to testify against a mob boss who was into some inside trading. Andrew Morenski must become Max Hauser and go back to high school for protection from the mob.

FBI agent Malcolm Turner goes back undercover as Big Momma, a slick-talking, slam-dunking Southern granny with attitude to spare! Now this granny must play nanny to three dysfunctional upper-class kids in order to spy on their computer hacker father.

Laurel Ayres is a businesswoman trying to make it but unfortunately she works at a investment firm where she does all the work but all the senior investors like Frank Peterson grab all the credit. She then leaves and starts her own firm. While trying to find clients Laurel pretends that she has a male partner named Robert Cutty. And when she starts to do well all of her clients wants to meet Cutty which is difficult since he doesn't exist.

Harry Crumb is a bumbling and inept private investigator who is hired to solve the kidnapping of a young heiress which he's not expected to solve because his employer is the mastermind behind the kidnapping.

It was an ingenious enough plan: rob the Riviera Casino's count room during an Elvis impersonator convention. But Thomas Murphy decided to keep all the money for himself and shot all his partners, including recently-freed ex-con Michael Zane. With $3.2 million at stake, the Marshals Service closing in, Michael must track down Murphy.

Cruchot's police office moves into a new building. They do not only get high tech equipment, but also four young female police officers to educate. All of them scramble to work with them -- and cause pure chaos while being distracted by the fine ladies. Then they get into real trouble when one after the other of their female colleagues is kidnapped.

A pair of adventurers try to track down an ancient Aztec/Mayan/Egyptian/Apache horde of gold.

After the patriarch of the Disguisey family is kidnapped by Devlin Bowman in an attempt to steal the most precious treasures from around the world, Italian waiter Pistachio Disguisey utilizes his supernatural ability to disguise himself in an attempt to stop him.

Two South African boys, one white, Rhino, and one black, Zulu, go their separate ways after an incident. Many years later, they meet up again as adults, when one, after living for years in the United States, is now a wanted criminal. The two end up being a part of a madcap chase involving a check for a large amount of lottery money, pursued by Gen. Diehard and Rhino's ex-wife Rowena, who was the cause of the rift between the two protagonists.

The Baronet of Ruddigore, Sir Despard Murgatroyd, has inherited a family curse which forces him to commit a crime every day — or die in agony. He hates the curse, doing his heinous misdeeds as early as possible and good works for the rest of the day to compensate!

A wildcat escapes from the zoo, disguises herself as a skunk to fool her pursuers, but that only attracts lovestruck Pepe le Pew.

An underhand solicitor receives threatening notes, and the police are called in to protect him.

Olive invites Popeye over for a hamburger dinner. His roommate Wimpy hears this and disguises himself as Popeye in order to be who enjoys the feast.

Cecilia Bartoli stars in this ebullient Zurich Opera House production of Rossini’s first French-language comedy opera described by the international press as “pure, unadulterated fun” and reminds us of her comic gifts and her naturalness as a stage actor — as well as her total sympathy with the music of Rossini.

Fantômas is a man of many disguises. He uses maquillage as a weapon. He can impersonate anyone using an array of masks and can create endless confusion by constantly changing his appearance.

Sergeant Cruchot and his faithful comrades have been sent to the International Congress of Gendarmerie in N.Y.

After a good-natured Irish cop is framed for a diamond robbery and murder and presumed dead in a train wreck, he gets plastic surgery and returns to expose the real killers.

Lügen haben hübsche Beine

Two escaped cons' only prayer to escape is to pass themselves off as priests and pass by the police blockade at the border into the safety of Canada.