User Reviews

I saw this movie in my teen years and I enjoyed it enormously. I was an enthusiast of Italian opera, and here was an unbelievable pageantry with all the great names of the nineteenth century belcanto from Rossini to Puccini passing through Verdi, impersonated by actors like Marcello Mastroianni and Micheline Presle, Paolo Stoppa and Danièle Delorme, Roland Alexandre and Märta Torén, Maurice Ronet and Myriam Bru, Andrea Checchi (to name just a very few from a huge cast), supported by such golden voices as Mario Del Monaco or Renata Tebaldi. It was a blockbuster, and I was young and this was what I loved, such a great spectacle with great historical names, great cast, great colors and great music. A bit of humor now and then, a bit of melodrama here and there, love permeating everything .... and glorious belcanto. And Carmine Galone, the director, knew how to make a blockbuster.

I kept the memory of this movie through the years, and I wanted to watch it again. I had this possibility today. Traveling on a time machine to see how it was everything on your past, your universe of those times, and your own selfie. To see it with your eyes from now. Of course it shows its age this Casa Ricordi from 1954, and I am showing my age, too. But I watched it with joy, a very old friend from sixty years ago.

Being an "oriundo", that is, of Italian ascendance, I was taken as a boy to watch this movie by my parents who were extremely fond of any kind of music -- and of Italian music most of all. I thought that the movie was beautiful but not so interesting, at least for a child of 9 or 10 as I was then. However, I had the good fortune of watching this movie again as a grown-up at a special showing, and what a revelation it was! What seemed only beautiful back then was now not only quite interesting too but, on top of that, also a very delightful way of being introduced to (or renewing your contact with) the endless magic of the world of opera. The movie tells us in rich detail how in 1807, in Milano, Giovanni Ricordi made a deal with the Teatro La Scala to print all the music sheet for them, in exchange for the handwritten works of whichever composer and musician hired by the Theater.

Lovingly directed by Carmine Gallone, who was originally an opera director, the movie shows us how the musical dynasty of the Casa Ricordi Publishers was born, and the amazing quantity of talent this organization worked with: Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, and so on. The best moment for me is the staging of the "La Calunnia" aria with the great Tito Gobbi as the playback singer, where Gallone combines both operatic and movie effects to convey the idea that "slandering is a little wind that builds up to a terrible storm to destroy lives and reputations".

It is worth mentioning as well that art director Mario Garbuglia and cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno managed to create a real feast for the eyes with their work in this movie. I've been trying to get a copy of it to no avail for decades now. When is it going to be released on DVD? It is imperative that it comes with subtitles in Italian so we opera lovers can best appreciate all the flavor of the original lyrics, please. It's about time someone gives us this neglected gem on DVD...

This is a film for opera lovers but for such an indispensable gem. It tells the story of the music publishing house of Ricordi through three generations, from 1807 and Napoleonic times to Puccini's 'La Bohème'. They are all there - Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Puccini and even Zandonai, with their lovers and successes and crises and tragedies - it's a gefundenes Fressen for any lover of any opera, while on the other hand people not familiar with the world of opera will hardly get much out of it, in spite of the great scenography, the marvellous colours, the many dramatic scenes and the splendid ladies. This is a sequel to the great opera film "Puccini" the year before, and the same Puccini actor is Puccini here, and also his wife Elvira (Marta Toren) is here Rossini's mistress Isabella.

There are quite a few very memorable scenes here. Focus is on major turning points in the lives of the different composers. Rossini comes first with the hilarious account of how his "Barber of Seville" first was a tremendous failure but turned to the greatest success of the century. Marcello Mastroianni is not quite the type for Gaetano Donizetti, but nevertheless there are some marvellous scenes with his "Elixir of Love". Vincenzo Bellini (Maurice Ronet) is given a very traumatic and melodramatic death scene, and then there is Verdi, caught up in the struggle for Italy's independence, but the following chapter of his is more interesting. After 'Aida' and his Requiem he decided never to compose anything again, he was sick and tired of the struggle and rivalry with Wagner, and he tried to retire completely, but was nevertheless coaxed back to write another opera or two in his old age, 'Otello' being the first, and its final scene is included. Then there is Puccini who finds a real Mimi in Paris, and there is another gripping death scene.

On the whole, this is great music film focused on Italian opera and definitely one of the best.