Who can forget the 1958 novel, The Leopard, by Italian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, assigned to every schoolchild in the 1960s? Well, I for one cannot remember the book’s plot; all I recall is a sense of impending doom as the central Sicilian royal grapples with his loss of power. Now The Leopard hits the streaming screens with a six-episode series largely written by Richard Warlow. A historical drama set in Sicily during the mid-1800s, when Garibaldi united the provinces under the banner of Italy, the series is brilliantly lush in its portrayal of aristocratic opulence and dusty fields of poverty. Accompanying the visual pleasures is a bouncy, classical soundtrack that works, splendid costuming, a workmanlike cast (I enjoyed Kim Rossie Stuart as gravelly-voiced Don Fabrizio, in tandem with Saul Nanni, playing rebel Tancredi), and capable staging of the political complexity underlying the original novel. Against these credits, the underlying love story threatens to swamp the real business of the story and some of the scenes have the look of theatre staging. Overall, The Leopard intrigues and entertains without shining.
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