Giuseppe VerdiFilmography

Born:: October 10, 1813 in Le Roncole, Parma, Italy
Occupation:: Featured Music, From Opera by
Birth name:: Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi
Biography:: The deeply moving, character-filled, atmospherically rich music of this prolific Italian composer has been quoted in at least 206 feature films. Almost all of his most beloved operas have received several full television and film productions: Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball), Falstaff, Otello...Read More

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New Year's Concert 2009: From the Teatro La Fenice

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Mariella Devia, Massimiliano Pisapia

Synopsis: Legendary French conductor Georges Pretre leads this classical concert, mounted on New Year's 2009, with orchestral music by The Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro La Fenice and vocal solos by tenor Massimiliano Pisapia and Mariella Devia. The innumerable selections include compositions by Wagner Read More

2009
La Traviata at La Scala

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: The Teatro Alla Scalla mounted this 2008 production of Giuseppe Verdi's 1853 opera Traviata, directed by the eminent Liliana Cavani (The Night Porter) and starring Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Frontali, Ramón Vargas and Natascha Petrinsky. The Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet of the Teatro Alla Scala Read More

2008
La Traviata

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Kristianne Kaiser, Magdalena Anna Hofmann, Stefanie Kopinits, Jean-François Borras, Georg Tichy

Synopsis: This production of Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata stars Kristiane Kaiser, Magdalena Anna Hofmann, and Stefanie Kopinits. Ernst Marzendorfer conducts the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra for this staging. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide Read More

2008
Orange Winter

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Matthew Gurewitsch

Synopsis: Recalling the accusations of malfeasance that plagued the late 2000 U.S. presidential election - only with a heightened intensity quotient - the 2004 presidential elections in Ukraine buckled beneath the weight of roundly-suspected fraud. In that political bout, two candidates - Victor Yanukovich Read More

2007
The Grand Organ of Liverpool Cathedral

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Ian Tracey

2007
Nabucco (Opernfestspiele St. Margareten)

Crew: From Opera by

2007
Nabucco (Arena di Verona/Oren)

Crew: From Opera by

2007
New Year's Concert in St Petersburg

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Bashmet, Yefim Bronfman, Valery Gergiev

Synopsis: In the classical performance release New Year's Concert in St Petersburg - shot on New Year's Day 2007 at St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall - Russian maestro Valery Gergiev leads the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre in interpretations of symphonic works by Wagner, Strauss, Verdi Read More

2007
La Traviata (Wiener Philharmoniker)

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: The release La Traviata brings to at-home audiences the Salzburg Festival's 2005 production of Giuseppe Verdi's titular masterpiece. This interpretation stars Anna Netrebko as Violetta Valery, Helene Schneidermann as Flora Bervoix, Diane Pilcher as Annina and Rolando Villazon as Alfredo Germont. Read More

2006
The Berlin Concert: Live from the Waldbuehne

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Plácido Domingo, Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazon

Synopsis: This evening of opera music features the great tenor Placido Domingo, soprano Anna Netrebko, and tenor Rolando Villazon performing individually and together on a number of selections written by the most famous composers of all time. Among the artists whose work appear during the concert are Verdi Read More

2006
La Traviata (Los Angeles Opera)

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: The Los Angeles Opera mounted this stage version of Giuseppe Verdi's 1853 opera La Traviata, starring the incomparable Renée Fleming, Rolando Villazón and Renato Bruson and staged by Marta Domingo. The Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and The Los Angeles Opera Chorus provide musical accompaniment. Read More

2006
La Traviata (Teatro Real Madrid)

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Norah Amsellem, Itxaro Mentxaka, María Espada, José Bros, Renato Bruson

Synopsis: Pier Luigi Pizzi mounted Giuseppe Verdi's seminal 1853 opera La Traviata at the Teatro Real in 2006, with a cast that includes Norah Amsellem as Violetta Valèry, Itxaro Mentxaka as Flora Bervoix, María Espada as Annina, José Bros as Alfredo Germont and Renato Bruson as Giorgio Germont. Pizzi Read More

2006
Parallel Voices

Crew: Featured Music

2005
Un Ballo in Maschera

Crew: From Opera by

2005
Macbeth

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: Giuseppi Verdi co-wrote his operatic interpretation of William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth - with its text of lust, greed, bloodshed, and pathological ambition - around 1846. Verdi took the Shakespearean text and added a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, replacing the three foreboding witches Read More

2005
La Traviata

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Thomas Hampson, Piotr Beczala, Eva Mei

Synopsis: Eva Mei, Piotr Beczala, and Thomas Hampson star in a faithful staging of Giuseppe Verdi's three-act opera La Traviata, captured live at the Zurich Opera House during the 2005 Zürcher Festspiele and featuring Conductor Franz Welser-Möst leading the Chorus and Orchestra of the Zurich Opera House. Read More

2005
Il Trovatore

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Leo Nucci

Synopsis: Guiseppe Verdi's four-act drama comes to the stage of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in this April of 2005 performance featuring conductor Carlo Rizzi as he leads the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Leo Nucci, Dimitra Theodossiou, and Mariana Pentcheva star and libretto is Read More

2005
Rigoletto Story

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: This lavish production of Giuseppe Verdi's classic opera stars Roberto Servile as Rigoleto, a royal jester. Despite his comical personality, Rigoleto is a man of strong passions, and when he discovers that the Duke (Marcelo Alvarez), a notorious womanizer, has bedded his lovely daughter Gilda Read More

2005
I Build the Tower: The Life and Work of Sam Rodia

Crew: Featured Music

2005
Don Carlos (Wiener Staatsoper)

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Alastair Miles, Ramón Vargas, Bo Skovhus, Simon Yang, Dan Paul Dumitrescu

Synopsis: The Wiener Staatsoper mounted and produced this rendition of Giuseppe Verdi's 1867 opera Don Carlos, starring Ramón Vargas, Alastair Miles, Bo Skovhus and Iano Tamar. Peter Konwitschny directs, while the orchestra and chorus of the Wiener Staatsoper, under the baton of Bertrand de Billy, provide Read More

2004
La Traviata

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Patrizia Ciofi, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Roberto Saccà

Synopsis: Robert Carsen directs this version of Guiseppe Verdi's La Traviata, based on the original stage version that premiered at the Teatro La Fenice in March of 1853 and performed live before an appreciative audience at the very same theater in November of 2004. Patrizia Ciofi, Roberto Sacca, and Dmitri Read More

2004
Don Carlo

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Robert Lloyd, Rolando Villazon, Dwayne Croft

Synopsis: Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlo arrives on stage in suitably majestic fashion in this release of the lavish production starring Robert Lloyd, Rolando Villazón, and Dwayne Croft. Willy Decker directs for the stage and musical director Riccardo Chailly leads the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Read More

2004
Rigoletto (Gran Teatre del Liceu)

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Marcelo Alvarez, Inva Mula, Carlos Álvarez

2004
Aida

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: Opus Arte presents this 2003 performance of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida by the Gran Teatre del Liceu. With a cast featuring such notables as Daniela Dessi, Fabio Armiliato, Elisabetta Fiorillo, Roberto Scandiuzzi, and Juan Pons, this production was also performed using the historic "trompe-l'oeil" Read More

2003
Tancredi

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Daniela Barcellona

Synopsis: This performance of Giuseppe Verdi's opera, Tancredi features the vocal talents of Daniela Barcellona in the title role. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide Read More

2003
La Traviata (Moscow Classikal Ballet)

Crew: From Opera by

2003
Il Trovatore

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Jose Cura, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Yvonne Naef, Verónica Villarroel, Tomas Tomasson

Synopsis: One of Giuseppe Verdi's most passionate and romantic operas has been given an opulent production in this staging by Elijah Moshinsky, with sets designed by noted production designer Dante Ferretti. Set in 15th century Spain, Il Trovatore tells the story of Manrico, a gypsy troubadour who has Read More

2002
La Traviata (Teatro Verdi di Busseto)

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Renato Bruson, Scott Piper, Stefania Bonfadelli

Synopsis: As mounted by the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Busseto, Parma, and helmed by stage and film director Franco Zeffirelli (Endless Love), this 2002 production of Verdi's iconic opera La Traviata stars Violetta Valery as Stefania Bonfadelli, Flora Bervoix as Annely Peebo, and Annina as Paola Leveroni. El Read More

2002
European Concert 2002

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado, Gil Shaham

2002
Simon Boccanegra

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Carlo Guelfi, Julian Konstantinov, Karita Mattila

Synopsis: Giuseppe Verdi's one prologue, three act opera featuring libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and Arrigo Boito is performed before a live audience at Florence's Teatro Comunale in this release featuring the music of the Orchestra and Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under conductor Claudio Read More

2002
Falstaff

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Willard White

Synopsis: Based on a character from William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Falstaff is one of the most notable operas by 19th century Italian composer Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi. This release from Arthaus Musik features a 2001 performance of the work from the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. The title role is Read More

2001
Falstaff (Teatro alla Scala)

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: Ambrogio Maestri stars in one of William Shakespeare's greatest comic roles as Falstaff in this operatic adaptation of the Bard by Giuseppe Verdi. Recorded during a performance at the Teatro Verdi on April 10, 2001, this production of Falstaff was staged by Riccardo Muti, and also stars Roberto Read More

2001
Otello

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Emily Magee, Christian Franz, Valeri Alexejev, Stephan Rügamer, Andreas Schmidt, Kwangchul Youn

Synopsis: Giuseppi Verdi's operatic adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy is captured live at the Staatsoper Berlin in a 2001 performance starring Christian Franz, Valeri Alexejev, and Andreas Schmidt. Conductor Daniel Barenboim leads the Staatskapelle Berlin, and the Dutch Staatsoper Berlin sings Read More

2001
Aida

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: Perhaps best known as the director of such films as Tea With Mussolini and 1968's Oscar-winning Romeo and Juliet, Franco Zeffirelli is also a Tony Award winner and has made a name for himself for his work on the stage. With direction and set design by Zeffirelli, this release from TDK Mediactive Read More

2001
Aida Degli Alberi

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Enzo Iacchetti, Massimo Lopez

2001
I Due Foscari

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Leo Nucci

Synopsis: Experience Guiseppe Verdi's I Due Foscari firsthand in this performance captured live at the Teatro Di San Carlo in Napoli. Featuring libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, performances by Leo Nucci, Vincenzo La Scola, and Danilo Rigosa, and conduction by Nello Santi. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide Read More

2000
Nabucco (Junge Philharmonie Wien)

Crew: From Opera by

2000
Falstaff (Royal Opera House)

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Bryn Terfel

Synopsis: Guiseppe Verdi's lavish Shakespearian epic opens London's newly-restored Royal Opera House in this performance originally broadcast live on the BBC in December of 1999. Directed by Graham Vick and featuring Bryn Terfel in the role of Sir John Falstaff and Barbara Frittoli as Alice Ford, this Read More

1999
Simon Boccanegra (Glyndebourne Festival Opera)

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: Elena Prokina and Giancarlo Pasquetto star in this stage production of Giuseppe Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, directed by Peter Hall and mounted at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. John Gunter designed the sets and costumes; The London Philharmonic Orchestra provides musical accompaniment. ~ Nathan Read More

1998
La Forza del Destino (Mariinsky Theatre)

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: Guiseppe Verdi's four act opera arrives on home video in this performance captured live at St Petersburg's Mariinski Theater. Featuring dancers Grigory Karasev, Galina Gorchakova and Nicolai Putilin in the leads and Valery Gergiev conducting The Kirov Chorus and Orchestra, this faithful Read More

1998
European Concert 1998

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado

1998
Nabucco (Teatro di San Carlo)

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: Nabucco (also known as Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Baal-worshipping Assyrians, has attacked and overwhelmed Jerusalem. The Israelites have captured Fenena , Nabucco's daughter, and high priest Zaccaria gives her to Ismaele, leader of the military, for safekeeping. Unbeknownst to Zaccaria Read More

1998
Aida

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Carlo Striuli, Dolora Zajick

Synopsis: The tragic tale of love between Egyptian leader Radames and radiant Ethiopian princess Aida makes the trip from the stage to the screen in this release of production starring Walter Fraccaro and Fiorenza Cedolins, and featuring the music of the Orchestra and Choir of the Theater of San Carlo Read More

1998
Witman Fiuk

Crew: Featured Music

Synopsis: Outwardly Janos and Erno Witman seem like typical middle class teens, but beneath their facades of normalcy, the two are deeply disturbed and obsessed with the nature of sex and death. Leaving much to the viewer's imagination, this horrific and highly atmospheric tale begins in a small Hungarian Read More

1997
Aida

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Pauletta de Vaughn, Bruno Sebastian

Synopsis: This 1997 staging of Verdi's classic opera Aida, directed for the stage by Martin Dubowitz, features Pauletta de Vaughn in the title role. Bruno Sebastian, Adriana Nicolai Walter Donati, and Aleksander Teliga round out the cast of this production. Giorgio Croci serves as the musical director. Read More

1997
Falstaff (Schwetzinger Festspiele)

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: The majesty of Antonio Salieri's Falstaff comes home as cameras roll to capture a live 1995 performance of the acclaimed work at the Schwetzinger Festspiele. John Del Carlo essays the role of Sir John Falstaff, and musical accompaniment is provided by both the Choir of Theater Im Pfalzbau Read More

1996
Welcome II the Terrordome

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Valentine Nonyela, Saffron Burrows, Suzette Llewellyn

Synopsis: Racial conflicts provide the impetus for this heavy, socially conscious British drama. The film begins in North Carolina, 1652, as an Ibo family calmly walks into the sea to drown themselves. To them death was preferable to slavery. The film quickly shoots into a future time, not too distant from Read More

1995
Simon Boccanegra

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: This rendition of Verdi's classic -- the title character is a complex figure whose love of both country and family prove a more than complicated combination -- was performed under the baton of conductor James Levine at the Metropolitan Opera House, and features opera legend Placido Domingo. Read More

1995
Aida

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Cheryl Studer, Dennis O'Neill

Synopsis: Originally filmed at the Covent Garden, this Royal Opera production features noted soprano Cheryl Studer in the title role, and also includes Dennis O'Neill and Luciana d'Intino. Verdi's classic is performed as it was originally intended -- in the opera house rather than atop a Broadway stage Read More

1994
La Traviata

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Frank Lopardo, Leo Nucci, Angela Gheorghiu

Synopsis: Featuring the debut of soprano Angela Gheorghiu, this release from Universal Classics presents a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's beloved opera La Traviata. Also starring Frank Lopardo and Leo Nucci, the production includes music provided by the Royal Opera House Orchestra under renowned conductor Sir Georg Solti Read More

1994
European Concert 1992

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Daniel Barenboim, Plácido Domingo, Berliner Philharmoniker

1992
Nabucco (Arena di Verona/Guadagno)

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Piero Cappuccilli, Nunzio Todisco, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Linda Roark Strummer, Marta Senn

Synopsis: The Arena di Verona mounted this 1992 stage production of Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco; it stars Nunzio Todisco, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Linda Roark Strummer, and Piero Cappuccilli. Gianfranco De Bosio directs for the stage, with Anton Guadagno conducting The Orchestra and Chorus of the Arena di Verona. Read More

1992
Tancredi

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Bernadette Manca di Nissa

1992
La Traviata (Teatro la Fenice)

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Edita Gruberova, Neil Shicoff, Giorgio Zancanaro

Synopsis: This performance of Verdi's opera La Traviata was recorded in Venice's 18th century opera house, La Fenice before it was destroyed in a fire in 1996. The lead role of Violetta in this performance is played by Edita Gruberova. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide Read More

1992
La Traviata

Crew: From Opera by

1992
Simon Boccanegra

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: Alexandre Agache, Kiri Te Kanawa, Roberto Scandiuzzi and Michael Sylvester are among the soloists in this version of Verdi's opera. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

1991
Pretty Woman

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Ralph Bellamy, Jason Alexander, Laura San Giacomo

Synopsis: Self-involved corporate raider Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) has recently split up with his girlfriend. Seeking directions to the Beverly Hills Hotel, he makes the acquaintance of free-spirited hooker Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) and decides to put her on a 3,000-dollar retainer as his "date." He Read More

3/23/90
Un Ballo in Maschera

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Aprile Millo, Leo Nucci, Luciano Pavarotti

Synopsis: This music performance video is a Verdi opera conducted by James Levine and performed by the Metropolitan Opera and Chorus and soloists Luciano Pavarotti, Leo Nucci and Aprile Millo. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

1990
Rigoletto

Crew: From Opera by

1990
Un Ballo In Maschera

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Plácido Domingo, Leo Nucci, Josephine Barstow

Synopsis: Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera is performed before a live audience in this 1990 production captured live at the Grobes Festspielhaus in Salzberg, Germany and starring Placido Domingo, Leo Nucci, and Josephine Barstow. The Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor performs under chorus Read More

1990
Luciano Pavarotti/Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra: Requiem Mass

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Luciano Pavarotti, Sharon Sweet, Dolora Zajick, Paul Plishka

Synopsis: This elaborate performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem Mass was mounted and delivered at the Arena di Verona in 1990, and features champion vocalists Luciano Pavarotti, Dolora Zajick, Paul Plishka and Sharon Sweet, backed by a chorus of 3,000 individuals. The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, under Read More

1990
To Kill a Priest

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Christopher Lambert, Ed Harris, Joanne Whalley, Joss Ackland, David Suchet

Synopsis: One of the first films by Polish director Agnieszka Holland to gain international acclaim, this drama is a joint French-American production based loosely on the real-life story of the dissident Polish priest Jerzy Popieluszko. In the early 1980s, as the democracy and labor movement known as Read More

10/13/89
The Music Teacher

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Jose van Dam, Anne Roussel, Philippe Volter, Sylvie Fennec, Johan Leysen

Synopsis: The title character in the Belgian-French The Music Teacher is a retired opera star, played by Jose Van Dam. The teacher's most gifted pupil is singer/musician Anne Roussel. Her love for her teacher is one of the motivating factors of the story, as is Roussel and Van Dam's relationship with Read More

7/7/89
Aida

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: This music performance video is a production of Verdi's tragedy. The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, conducted by James Levine, is accompanied by the Metropolitan Opera Chorus and by solists Zajick, Kavrakos, Burchuladze, and Milnes in its performance. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

1989
Un Ballo in Maschera

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Leona Mitchell, Richard Greager, Malcolm Donnelly, Gillian Sullivan

1989
A Time of Destiny

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: William Hurt, Timothy Hutton, Melissa Leo, Stockard Channing, Megan Follows

Synopsis: Martin (William Hurt) and Jack (Timothy Hutton) are World War II soldiers who go from being army buddies to bitter enemies during the war in this uneven melodrama. Not realizing they are brothers-in-law, Martin eventually learns that Jack is married to his sister Josie (Melissa Leo). On their Read More

4/22/88
Aria

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Theresa Russell, Nicola Swain, Buck Henry, Jack Kyle, Marianne McLoughlin, Julie Hagerty, Marion Peterson, Tilda Swinton

Synopsis: An international collection of well-known directors contributed to this compilation film, each fashioning a short film inspired by an aria from a famous opera. The approaches vary broadly, from the playful abstraction of Jean-Luc Godard's segment, which illustrates Armide with exercising Read More

3/18/88
And God Created Woman

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Rebecca De Mornay, Vincent Spano, Frank Langella, Donovan Leitch, Judith Chapman

Synopsis: French director Roger Vadim pillages his own grave in this nominal re-make of his 1956 creamy sensation And God Created Woman -- the film that made Brigitte Bardot an international star. Unfortunately, he is unable to do the same thing for the cool and cryptic Rebecca DeMornay in this version. DeMornay Read More

3/4/88
L'Age De Monsieur Est Avance

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Jean Carmet, Nicole Calfan, Pierre Etaix

Synopsis: An author (Pierre Etaix), an actress (Nicole Calfan) and a stage manager (Jean Carmet) star in this plotless story about the preparation of a new play. Scenes of the audience are inserted to move along this story within a story. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide Read More

1988
Aida

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Ingrid Tobiasson, Niklas Ek, Robert Grundin, Jan VanDer Schaaf

Synopsis: This Swedish version of Giuseppe Verdi's late 19th-century tragic opera tells the story of an Ethiopian princess who is forced into slavery when captured by the Egyptians. The women are depicted in various stages of nudity and the vocals are all sung in Swedish with Lorin Maazel conducting. ~ Dan Read More

1988
Il Trovatore

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: Featuring world-renowned tenor Luciano Pavarotti, this release from Universal Classics presents a 1988 performance of Il Travatore at The Metropolitan Opera. Performed in the original Italian, the opera by Giuseppe Verdi includes music by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra under the direction of Read More

1988
I Due Foscari

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: The treachery of 15th Century Venice comes to the stage of the Teatro Alla Scala in a filmed performance of Guiseppe Verdi's grim three-act tragedy that takes its cue from a drama originally penned by Lord Byron. Directed by Gianandrea Gavazzeni and starring Renato Bruson in the role of Venetian Read More

1988
Making Opera: The Creation of Verdi's La Forza Del Destino

Crew: Featured Music

Synopsis: La Forza del Destino is an important opera by Giuseppe Verdi which, in this documentary, is being produced by the Canadian Opera company under the direction of John Copley. The documentary's footage of the rehearsal process shows the arduous task of mounting an opera in all its unwieldiness and Read More

1988
La Traviata

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Marie McLaughlin, Walter Mac Neil, Brent Ellis

Synopsis: Acclaimed soprano Marie McLaughlin headlines this performance of Guiseppe Verdi's heartbreaking tale of ill-fated love directed for the stage by Sir Peter Hall and featuring conductor Bernard Haitink leading the London Philharmonic. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide Read More

1988
Nabucco (Teatro alla Scala, Milan)

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Renato Bruson, Ghena Dimitrova

1987
Macbeth (Deutsche Oper Berlin)

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: Giuseppe Verdi's opera version of Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth is performed by the Orchestra and Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, under the direction of Giuseppe Sinopoli. Renato Bruson plays Macbeth, a man who grows mad with ambition. His crazed wife, Lady Macbeth (Mara Zampieri) convinces Read More

1987
Macbeth

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Leo Nucci, Shirley Verrett, Johan Leysen, Samuel Ramey, Philippe Volter

Synopsis: This production of Giuseppi Verdi's opera based on Macbeth, the famed play by William Shakespeare, is a musical succès d'estime but falls short in the cinematic arena. Shirley Verrett stars as the murderous and ambitious Lady Macbeth, Leo Nucci co-stars as her similarly ambitious but slightly more Read More

1987
Ursula

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Ville Virtanen, Tomi Salmela

Synopsis: In this melodrama, Marten, Ursula and Harri have gotten themselves into a life of drug-peddling, but now they want to get out of it. Like all such situations, it proves to be more difficult than just stating one's intentions. It's not clear that these three indecisive people are really up to the Read More

1987
Macbeth

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Mato Valtonen, Pirkko Hamalainen, Antti Litja, Pertti Sveholm, Turo Pajala

Synopsis: In this arthouse satirical interpretation of the famous Shakespeare play, a thug named Macbeth starts a gang war at the instigation of his ultimately suicidal girlfriend. As the mobsters become increasingly paranoid, their use of lines quoted from Shakespeare's plays becomes especially silly, as Read More

1987
Manon of the Spring

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Béart, Hippolyte Girardot, Elisabeth Depardieu

Synopsis: Manon of the Spring (Manon des Sources) has also been released as Jean de Florette II in the US, as it is a sequel to Claude Berri's Jean de Florette. Both films are drawn from the same source: Filmmaker/novelist Marcel Pagnol's 1952 rural romance, also titled Jean de Florette. Manon (Emmanuelle Beart Read More

11/19/86
Otello

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Plácido Domingo, Katia Ricciarelli, Justino Diaz, Petra Malakova, Urbano Barberini

Synopsis: Having previously staged Verdi's 1887 opera Otello at the Met and La Scala, filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli committed his production to film in 1986. Starring as the fatally jealous Moor of Venice is Placido Domingo, who had also headlined Zeffirelli's 1976 La Scala staging (production on the film was Read More

9/12/86
Faubourg Saint-Martin

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Patachou, Ingrid Bourgoin, Patrick Couet, Marie Christine Rousseau, Stephane Jobert, Chantal Delsaux, Vincent Ducastel, Françoise Fabian

Synopsis: A hooker tries to overcome her fate by marrying out of her profession in this conventional drama by Jean-Claude Guiguet. Marie (Marie Christine Rousseau) and another prostitute with a young son live in a hotel near the Saint-Martin canal. Marie has fallen in love with Paul (Stephane Jobert), and Read More

1986
Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Thales Pan Chacon

Synopsis: This is a well-executed psychological drama with exceptionally good acting. Fernanda Torres stars as a newly separated woman with one child who meets her estranged husband (Thales Pan Chacon) for a heart-to-heart. They plumb the depths of their feelings and look back on their relationship with a Read More

1986
Il Trovatore

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: This musical performance features the classic Verdi opera and was taped at Italy's Arena di Verona with English subtitles. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

1985
Le Meilleur De La Vie

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Sandrine Bonnaire, Jacques Bonnaffé, Marie-Christine Barrault, Jean-Marc Bory

Synopsis: Two quarreling lovers from opposite sides of the economic scale take central stage in this well-executed drama about Veronique (Sandrine Bonnaire) and Adrien (Jacques Bonnafe). Veronique is wealthy and from the provinces, Adrien is impoverished and his ancestors come from Brittany. In spite of Read More

1985
Mein Lieber Schatz

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Renate Muhri, Karlheinz Maslo, Rita Bastardo, Thomas Scholz

Synopsis: This avant-garde fantasy is about an "Alice in Wonderland" type of existence in which the same show plays eternally on the television, and everyone is a historical or fictional character like Goethe or Don Giovanni. Tusnelda (Renate Muhri) does not want to perform her obligatory wifely role, and Read More

1985
Aida (Teatro Alla Scala)

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: Luciano Pavarotti, often cited as the world's finest operatic tenor, stars in this lavish production of Giuseppe Verdi's classic opera. Set in ancient Egypt, Aida concerns the romantic entanglement of military leader Radames, the beautiful Princess Amneris, and Aida, her slave from Ethiopia. Read More

1985
Tosca's Kiss

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Sara Scuderi, Giovanni Puligheddu, Leonida Bellon

Synopsis: Before he died in 1902, Giuseppe Verdi inaugurated a home for retired artists in Milan, a project he had worked on for some time. This home is maintained by the Friends of the Casa Verdi, after Verdi's royalties that supported the home ran out in the 1960s. Director Daniel Schmid interviews Read More

1984
La Forza del Destino (The Metropolitan Opera)

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Richard Vernon, Leontyne Price, Leo Nucci, Giuseppe Giacomini

Synopsis: This video captures the performance of this tragic Verdi opera as it is performed by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

1984
Aida

Crew: From Opera by

1984
Le Cercle des Passions

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Giuliano Gemma, Max von Sydow, Assumpta Serna, Marcel Bozzuffi, Françoise Fabian

Synopsis: Director Claude D'Anna has tried for epic proportions in this less-than-epic film about incest, murder, suicide, and insanity in an aristocratic Sicilian family living in the 1950s. Count Villafratti (Max Von Sydow) has sex one night with his nymphomaniac daughter because he thinks she is his Read More

7/6/83
Nostalghia

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Oleg Yankovsky, Domiziana Giordano, Erland Josephson

Synopsis: Nostalghia is Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky's enigmatic work about a writer (Oleg Yankovsky) who, trapped by his fame and an unhappy marriage, seeks out his cultural past in Italy. Here he meets Erland Josephson, a local pariah who declares that the world is coming to an end. The writer finds Read More

6/2/83
La Traviata

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Teresa Stratas, Plácido Domingo, Cornell MacNeil, Alan Monk, Axelle Gall

Synopsis: Tenor Plácido Domingo and soprano Teresa Stratas star in director Franco Zeffirelli's lushly cinematic version of Verdi's opera La Traviata ("The Woman Gone Astray"), a story of doomed love in 1840s Paris. Violetta (Stratas), who is the mistress of a wealthy baron, hosts a lavish party to Read More

2/18/83
Ernani

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: Luciano Pavarotti takes the title role in this production of Verdi's operatic tragedy, in which a man falls for a woman who is pledged to another, leading to three men vying for the same woman, ending in betrayal and tragic consequences for all parties concerned. Leona Mitchell co-stars as Read More

1983
Don Carlo

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: This video presents the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus in a sumptuous production of Verdi's classic opera Don Carlos. Set in the court of Philip II of Spain, the tale of love and intrigue unfolds amidst a lavish set and gorgeous costumes. Creating unforgettable characters are popular Read More

1983
Eine Liebe Wie Andere Auch

Crew: Featured Music

Synopsis: A gay couple living in Berlin has a fairly bourgeois lifestyle: one is a high school teacher who defends the "squatters" in districts like Chamissoplatz, the other is a bookseller who admires Klaus Mann's novel Mephisto, a story about an actor who sold his soul to the Nazis and suffered the Read More

1983
Rigoletto (Wiener Philharmoniker)

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Ingvar Wixell, Luciano Pavarotti, Edita Gruberova, Ferruccio Furlanetto

Synopsis: The complications and excesses in the highly melodramatic story of Rigoletto almost define the word "opera" for many people, and the name of this opera's composer, Giuseppi Verdi, is one to conjure with. Many cinematically inclined opera fans had high hopes for this 1983 production directed by the Read More

1983
Falstaff

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Renato Bruson

Synopsis: This presentation of Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff (the final opera of his impressive career) features bass baritone Jose van Dam as the title character. The storyline is an amalgam of Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windser and Henry IV. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide Read More

1983
Ein Man wie Eva

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Eva Mattes, Werner Stocker

Synopsis: Loosely based on the colorful, combustible life and career of German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder, A Man Like Eva (Ein Mann Wie Eva) stars actress Eva Mattes in male drag as an obsessive, sadomasochistic movie director. Eva is currently working on a filmization of Dumas' Lady of the Read More

1983
El Norte

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Zaide Silvia Gutierrez, David Villalpando, Ernesto Gómez Cruz, Alicia del Lago, Eraclio Zepeda

Synopsis: El Norte is a realistic picture of both the Guatemalan government's oppression of the Quiche Indians and the hard life of illegal immigrants in the United States. After the Guatemalan army destroys their village of San Pedro, two teenage Quiche Mayan Indian siblings journey north (hence El Norte) Read More

1983
Otello (Arena di Verona)

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Vladimir Atlantov, Kiri Te Kanawa, Piero Cappuccilli, Antonio Bevacqua, Gianfranco Manganotti

Synopsis: This performance of Giuseppe Verdi's opera, Otello, based on the play by Shakespeare, features the vocal talents of Vladimir Atlantov in the title role. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide Read More

1982
Herbert Von Karajan - His Legacy for Home Video: Giuseppe Verdi - Falstaff

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Giuseppe Taddei

Synopsis: Opera. Verdi's Falstaff from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The composer's last opera turned one hundred. A celebration performance with Sir Georg Solti. Gabriel Bacquier sings the title role. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

1982
Ernani

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Plácido Domingo

Synopsis: A filmed version of the Verdi opera, Ernani is set in 1519 and concerns Ernani, an outlawed nobleman who is heading a resistance effort against the villainous kin, Don Carlo, who killed Ernani's father. The rebel also is planning to elope with his beloved, Elvira, who is about to be forced to Read More

1982
Aida (San Francisco Opera)

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Margaret Price, Luciano Pavarotti

Synopsis: This production of Giuseppe Verdi's enduringly popular opera Aida features Margaret Price as the title character, and Luciano Pavarotti as Radames. This production was staged at San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House in 1981. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide Read More

1981
Nabucco (Arena di Verona/Arena)

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: This performance of Verdi's opera Nabucco, tells the story of an oppressed people yearning for elusive freedom through the performances of vocalists such as Renato Bruson and Ghena Dimitrova. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide Read More

1981
Un Ballo in Maschera

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Luciano Pavarotti, Katia Ricciarelli, Louis Quilico, Judith Blegen, Bianca Berini, Giuseppe Patone

Synopsis: Luciano Pavarotti stars as Riccardo in this production of Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera", staged by New York City's Metropolitian Opera Company in 1980. Director Elijah Moshinsky has reset the story in Boston as America is on the verge of the Revolutionary war to put a new spin on this story of Read More

1980
Manha Submersa

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Eunice Munoz, Canto Castro, Carlos Wallenstein

Synopsis: Based on an autobiography by Vergilio Ferreira that was banned during Salazar's dictatorship in Portugal (1945-1968), this compelling drama features the forced confinement of a 12-year-old boy in a seminary. When a patroness (Eunice Munoz) chooses to send Antonio (Canto e Castro) to a seminary to Read More

1980
Luna

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Jill Clayburgh, Matthew Barry, Renato Salvatori, Tomas Milian, Fred Gwynne

Synopsis: Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial drama explores the troubled life of a young man and his troubling relationship with his parents. Joe (Matthew Barry) is the son of famous opera singer Caterina Silveri (Jill Clayburgh); while Joe believes that Caterina's husband Douglas Winter (Fred Gwynne) is Read More

8/29/79
Falstaff

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: Verdi's comic masterpiece comes to life in filmmaker Götz Friedrich's 1979 cinematic adaptation featuring the music of the Wiener Philharmoniker performing under conductor Sir Georg Solti. Gabriel Bacquier, Richard Stilwell, and Max-René Cosotti star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide Read More

1979
Victoria

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Stefan Schwartz

Synopsis: Romantic love between two socially disparate people binds and separates a young man and young woman in this traged based on Nobel Prize-winner Knut Hamsun's novel. In order to win the right to be invited into the house of a wealthy girl whom he loves, a miller's son struggles and becomes a writer. Read More

1979
Il Trovatore

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Plácido Domingo

Synopsis: A live performance of composer Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore is presented in this release from ORF. Recorded at Germany's Wiener Staatsoper in 1978, the production stars Piero Cappuccilli as Il Conte di Luna and Raina Kabalvanska as Laina and features music by the Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper Read More

1978
Simon Boccanegra (NHK Symphony Orchestra)

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Piero Cappuccilli, Katia Ricciarelli, Nikolai Ghiaurov, Giorgio Merighi

Synopsis: The NHK Hall in Tokyo, Japan mounted this September 1976 production of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Simon Boccanegra, with Piero Cappuccilli, Katia Riccarelli, Giorgio Merighi and Nicolai Ghiaurov in the title roles. The NHK Symphony Orchestra lends musical accompaniment with Oliviero de Fabritiis Read More

1976
La Traviata

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: Opera great Beverly Sills performs as Violetta in the popular opera La Traviata. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

1976
Falstaff (Glyndebourne Festival Opera)

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Donald Gramm, Benjamin Luxon, Max-Rene Cosotti

Synopsis: Based on the character of Sir John Falstaff from Shakespeare's Henry IV, the opera Falstaff was composed by the inimitable Giuseppe Verdi. From the Glyndenbourne Festival Opera, this 1976 production of the work comes from Arthaus Musik and features Donald Gramm in the title role. The renowned London Philharmonic Orchestra Read More

1976
Un Ballo in Maschera

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: This performance of Un Ballo in Maschera, one Verdi's most popular operas, was originally recorded in 1975 at the famous Covent Garden. Under the baton of conductor Claudia Abbado, celebrated tenor Placido Domingo is featured in the lead role of Gustavus, while Katia Ricciarelli and Piero Read More

1975
Otello

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Jon Vickers, Mirella Freni, Peter Glossop, Stefania Malagu

Synopsis: William Shakespeare's tragedy of love, jealousy, and murder was adapted for the operatic stage by Giuseppe Verdi, and this home video release preserves a stellar production of Verdi's interpretation. Staged in Germany in 1974, this version of Otello stars Jon Vickers as the jealous Moor, Mirella Freni Read More

1974
La Traviata

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Renata Scotto, José Carreras, Sesto Bruscantini

Synopsis: NHK Hall in Tokyo mounted this September 1973 production of Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata, starring José Carreras, Sesto Bruscantini and Renata Scotto. The NHK Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of maestro Nino Verchi, provides added musical accompaniment. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide Read More

1973
Aida

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Orianna Santunione, Carlo Bergonzi, Fiorenza Cossotto, Gian Piero Mastromei, Ivo Vinco

Synopsis: This 1973 production of Giuseppe Verdi's seminal opera Aida was mounted at the NHK Hall in Tokyo, and stars heavyweights including Orianna Santunione in the title role, Carlo Bergonzi as Radamès and Fiorenza Cossotto as Amneris. The NHK Symphony Orchestra and the NHK Italian Opera Chorus lend Read More

1973
La Strategia del Ragno

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Giulio Brogi, Alida Valli, Tino Scotti

Synopsis: Originally produced for Italian television, Bernardo Bertolucci's The Spider's Stratagem (La Strategia del Ragno) can be regarded as a cinematic tone poem. Adapted from a Jorge Luis Borges short story, the film stars Giulio Brogi as a young Italian who returns to his ancestral home -- the place Read More

10/4/72
The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Margit Carstensen, Hanna Schygulla

Synopsis: This tale of intermingled love and hate is directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and is the 13th of the 33 films he made in his short life. It explores the universal dynamics present in close human relationships, even lesbian ones. Petra Von Kant (Margit Carstensen) is a fashion designer. Some Read More

1972
Macbeth

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: This performance of Guiseppe Verdi's opera Macbeth, based on the Shakespeare play of the same name, features the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Glyndebourne Chorus and the Glyndebourne Ballet. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide Read More

1972
Otello

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: In the final decades of his life, opera guru Walter Felseinstein (1901-75) built and sustained a reputation for restaging seminal works from the operatic canon for film cameras, and shooting them on closed sets, usually with the original casts involved. Such was the case with this unique 1969 Read More

1969
Trans-Europ-Express

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Marie-France Pisier, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Nadine Verdier, Charles Millot, Catherine Robbe-Grillet, Daniel Emilfork

Synopsis: This complex and witty crime drama is set aboard a Paris train bound for Antwerp. Aboard are a husband and wife. Also aboard, but during a different time and space, is a gangster. The husband and wife are planning to make a film, Trans-Europ-Express featuring an actor who looks exactly like the Read More

1968
La Traviata

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Anna Moffo, Franco Bonisolli, Gino Bechi, Mafalda Micheluzzi

Synopsis: In this 1968 filmed performance of Verdi's La Traviata, soprano Anna Moffo takes over the role of Violetta, backed by conductor Giuseppe Patanè and the orchestra and chorus of the Rome Opera House. Mario Lanfranchi directs. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide Read More

1968
Don Carlo

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Sándor Kónya, Gwyneth Jones, Biserka Cvejic, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, Sesto Bruscantini

1967
Un Ballo in Maschera

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Carlo Bergonzi, Antonietta Stella, Mario Zanasi, Margherita Gulielmi, Lucia Danieli

Synopsis: Giuseppe Verdi's opera Un Ballo in Maschera receives an interpretation by the Nippon Hoso Kyokai in this production, mounted in Tokyo in September 1967. The performance features Carlo Bergonzi, Antonietta Stella and Mario Zanasi as the principals, and musical accompaniment by The NHK Symphony Read More

1967
Terra em Transe

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Jardel Filho, Paulo Autran, Jose Lewgoy, Glauber Rocha, Paulo Gracindo

Synopsis: This Brazilian example of cinema novo chronicles the struggle of a man deeply entangled within unstable and crooked politics. The story is told in flashback by a writer who explains how he got into his present situation. He had been supporting a conservative party leader, but then decided to Read More

1966
Rome Against Rome

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The low-budget horror film Rome Against Rome concerns the Roman military doing battle against an army of zombies who have been reanimated thanks to the force of an ancient goddess. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide Read More

1964
The Leopard

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale, Paolo Stoppa, Rina Morelli, Serge Reggiani

Synopsis: Arguably Luchino Visconti's best film and certainly the most personal of his historical epics, The Leopard chronicles the fortunes of Prince Fabrizio Salina and his family during the unification of Italy in the 1860s. Based on the acclaimed novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, published Read More

3/28/63
Aida

Crew: Featured Music, From Opera by

Actors: Gabriella Tucci, Mario del Monaco, Giulietta Simionato, Aldo Protti

1961
Rigoletto (NHK Symphony Orchestra)

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Aldo Protti, Gabriella Tucci, Gianni Poggi

Synopsis: The NHK Symphony mounted this classic production of Verdi's 1851 opera Rigoletto, performed on stage and filmed in 1961. In the principal roles, it stars Aldo Protti, Gianni Proggi and Gabriella Tucci; The NHK Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Arturo Basile, lends added musical accompaniment. Read More

1961
Otello

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Mario del Monaco, Gabriella Tucci, Tito Gobbi, Anna di Stasio

1959
Leontyne Price: The Art of Verdi - Aida Act III

Crew: Featured Music

1958
Il Trovatore

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Fedora Barbieri, Ettore Bastianini, Leyla Gencer

Synopsis: The Hardy Trading Company presents this 1957 production of Giuseppe Verdi's classic Il Trovatore. The opera stars Mario Del Monaca as Manrico and Leyla Gencer as Leonora and includes music by the Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Milano. The program was originally filmed for Italian television. Read More

1957
Falstaff

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Giuseppe Taddei, Scipione Colombo, Luigi Alva, Mario Carlin

Synopsis: In this release of a performance originally telecast on Radiotelevisione Italiana on May 9, 1956, Giuseppe Taddei, Scipione Colombo, and Luigi Alva headline Verdi's three act opera with the backing of the Orchestra and Chorus of Radiotelevisione Italiana Milano and conductor Tullio Serafin. Read More

1956
Senso

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Alida Valli, Farley Granger, Massimo Girotti, Heinz Moog, Rina Morelli

Synopsis: Italian director Luchino Visconti dishes up his usual blend of elegance and decadence in Senso. The international cast includes French film star Alida Valli as a Italian countess married to a Venetian nobleman, and English leading man Farley Granger as an Austrian military officer. The two are Read More

12/30/54
La Traviata

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Rosanna Carteri, Nicola Filacuridi, Carlo Tagliabue

1954
Aida

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Sophia Loren, Lois Maxwell, Luciano della Maria, Enrico Formichi, Afro Polli, Antonio Cassinelli

Synopsis: Sophia Loren, complete with blackface and an Afro, came to international acclaim in this fairly literal version of the Giuseppe Verdi opera. Loren (with singing dubbed by Renata Tebaldi) portrays the title character, an Ethiopian slave owned by Amneris (Lois Maxwell), the daughter of the Egyptian Read More

10/23/53
La Forza del Destino

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Nelly Corradi, Gino Sinimberghi, Tito Gobbi, John Kitzmiller

Synopsis: Italian director Carmine Gallone, who previously brought the Giueseppe Verdi opera Il Trovatore to the screen, herein offers a cinemazation of Verdi's La Forza del Destino. With a less dynamic plot than Trovatore, this Verdi composition can be appreciated on the merits of its music alone. Famed Read More

1/25/50
Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra: 03/26/1949 & 04/02/1949

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Arturo Toscanini

Synopsis: This music performance video is a production of Verdi's tragedy. The NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Toscanini, is accompanied by both chorus and soloists in its performance. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

1949
Il Trovatore

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Gianna Pederzini, Enzo Mascherini, Gino Sinimberghi, Vittorina Colonello

Synopsis: At the time of its release, this filmization of Verdi's opera Il Trovatore was praised for its "cinematic" qualities: that is, it didn't look like just another photographed stage play. Director Carmine Gallone even expanded upon the battle sequences that are usually sketchily presented on stage. Read More

1949
La Traviata

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Massimo Serato, Nerio Bernardi, Nelly Corradi

Synopsis: The Lost One is the English-language title for the 1948 adaptation of Giueseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata. Departing somewhat from the original plotline, the film accommodates a "framing story" involving Verdi (Nerio Bernardi) and Alexandre Dumas Jr. (Massimo Serato), author of the opera's source Read More

1948
The King's Jester

Crew: From Musical by

Actors: Michel Simon, Rossano Brazzi, Maria Mercader, Paola Barbara, Doris Duranti

Synopsis: The King's Jester is a non-musical Italian film version of the tragic opera Rigoletto. While we hear no vocal renditions of "Caro Nome" and "La Donna e Mobile", those songs, along with the rest of Verdi's score, can be heard as incidental music. French character actor Michel Simon stars as the Read More

1947
Rigoletto

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Tito Gobbi, Giulio Neri

Synopsis: Sweet revenge turns horribly sour in Verdi's tragic opera Rigoletto. This Italian film version of the Verdi classic was lensed at the Royal Opera House of Rome. As a result, it isn't very cinematic, though the singing cannot be faulted. The great Tito Gobbi stars as Rigoletto, the hunchbacked Read More

1/1/47
Rigoletto

Crew: From Opera by

1946
The Lost Weekend

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Howard Da Silva, Phillip Terry, Doris Dowling

Synopsis: Billy Wilder's searing portrait of an alcoholic features an Oscar-winning performance by Ray Milland as Don Birnam, a writer whose lust for booze consumes his career, his life, and his loves. The story begins as Don and his brother Wick (Philip Terry) are packing their bags in their New York Read More

1945
Moonlight Murder

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Chester Morris, Leo Carrillo, Frank McHugh, Benita Hume

Synopsis: Moonlight Murder takes place virtually in its entirety at the Hollywood Bowl. Despite dire warnings by a sinister mystic (Pedro de Cordoba), opera-star Gino D'Acosta (Leo Carrillo) insists that he will sing in the Bowl's current production of Il Trovatore. He gets no farther than the "Anvil Read More

1936
Mammy

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Al Jolson, Lois Moran, Louise Dresser, Lowell Sherman, Hobart Bosworth

Synopsis: Mammy features Al Jolson as the star of a travelling minstrel show, appearing in a small Southern town. Jolson falls in love with an actress in the troupe (Lois Moran), but she loves another. One of Jolson's fellow minstrels (Lowell Sherman) is shot backstage, and it is assumed thanks to several Read More

1930
Il Trovatore

Crew: From Opera by
Verdi: Oberto, conte di San Bonifaco

Crew: From Opera by

Actors: Ildar Abdrazakov, Evelyn Herlitzius, Carlo Ventre, Marianne Cornetti, Nuria Lorenzo

Synopsis: The Ópera de Bilbao mounted this live rendition of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio in January 2007, with Ildar Abdrazakov in the title role, Evelyn Herlitzius as Leonora, Carlo Ventre as Ricardo and Nuria Lorenzo as Imelda. The Chorus of the Ópera de Bilbao and the Orchestra Read More
La Traviata (Metropolitan Opera)

Crew: From Opera by
Luciano Pavarotti: Ernani

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Luciano Pavarotti, Sherrill Milnes, Ruggero Raimondi, Leona Mitchell, Jean Kraft

Synopsis: Luciano Pavarotti: Ernani features the celebrated tenor performing Verdi's classic opera. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide Read More
La Forza del Destino

Crew: From Opera by
A Musical Journey: Tuscany

Crew: Featured Music
Attila

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: Samuel Ramey gives a powerful performance as Attila in this thoughtful, handsomely mounted production of Verdi's classic opera, presented by the internationally famous La Scala opera company. The cast also includes Cheryl Studer as Odabella and features Giorgio Zancanaro, Kaludi Kaludov and Read More
Attila (Arena Di Verona)

Crew: From Opera by

Synopsis: This performance of Verdi's opera, Attila features the vocal talents of Evgeny Nesterenko and Silvano Carroli. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide Read More

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