Arthur, the director of an opera house, gathers the representatives of the money, life and art worlds at a soirée in order to rehabilitate himself and the opera house in one fell swoop. But the plan to give himself and culture a new lustre fails. After "Der blaue Engel" (1930) and "Der Untertan" (1950), "Belcanto oder Darf eine Nutte schluchzen?" (1978) is certainly the most unusual adaptation of a novel by Heinrich Mann. Van Ackeren stages his story of the impostor in stylised, natural tableaux, his characters sing their lines a capella, standing in what seem to be floating backdrops. The narrative style and character design question traditional patterns of vision and refuse to conform to classical narrative cinema.