Inspired (legend has it) by the fate of a 19th century opera star who, at the age of 28, dropped dead on stage from overexertion, Schroeter's 1972 masterpiece seems bent on emulating its eponymous heroine in a series of passionate, intense theatrical tableaux. Magdalena Montezuma and Warhol superstar Candy Darling head a cast of women (and some transvestites) who pose and vamp through a gamut of romantic and sexual inferences, not so much of body as of mind. The film evokes as it parodies a decadent Romanticism unto death. The soundtrack is as rich as the visual textures, with a voice-over from German opera, and whispered snippets of dialogue in English and German (no subtitles necessary). With this film, Schroeter came out from the underground: even "above-ground"critics were forced to agree with Amos Vogel's assessment in the Village Voice, "The Death of Maria Malibran is hermetic, melodramatic, expressionist, totally oblique, and of a creative perversity that bespeaks the presence of genius."