Giuseppe Verdi Movies
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, Il trovatore, La traviata, Rigoletto, Macbeth, Don Carlos, Aida, La forza del destino, Attila, Giovanna d'Arco, Luisa Miller, Nabucco, Ernani, and Simon Boccanegra. As early as 1909, excerpts from Rigoletto were realized in D.W. Griffith's A Fool's Revenge, and parts of Aida were used in two films of that same name made in 1911. Productions of Un ballo in maschera and Falstaff were made for television in 2001.Verdi's powerfully gripping Requiem has been excerpted in To Kill a Priest (1988), Den Enfaldige mördaren (The Simple-Minded Murderer, 1982), and a full performance was realized in Giuseppe Verdi: Messa di Requiem (1967). For Luchino Visconti's Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963), composer Nino Rota orchestrated Verdi's Valzer in fa maggiore (Waltz in F Major), originally written "per cembalo" when the composer was in his youth, judging from the simplicity of the elements in the piece. The Valzer was discovered by Rota in the possession of a Roman antiquarian, and was orchestrated for strings, flutes, and piano for the film soundtrack.
A brief excerpt from a Verdi aria is played on a wheezy church organ as the returning Prince Salina (Burt Lancaster) enters with his entourage. The Valser begins on a shot of farmers working on a hillside and follows the cross-fade into a large ballroom. The guests are greeted at a reception line, people gossip, ladies fan themselves (the Sicilian night is very hot), Colonel Pallipacini and his officers are introduced to the notables. The music flows from the balconies into a garden where the Colonel, surrounded by admiring women hanging on his every word, speaks of Garibaldi as looking like an archangel: "I wept like a little baby." Verdi's waltz cadences at the end of the Colonel's exaggerated speech, and another waltz with lovely romantic harmonies in the style of the period by Nino Rota, begin as the scene shifts back into the ballroom. This piece is followed by a wonderful folk-style mazurka in a minor key. In several more scenes, the Prince suggests that he will be dying soon, and blesses the marriage of his nephew Don Trancredi (Alain Delon) and Angelica (Claudia Cardinale). Angelica asks the Prince to dance with her and back in the ballroom the Verdi waltz is struck up once again. Everyone looks on and the Prince and Angelica glide gently across the room. In the following scenes, contrast is continually made between the happy music and the self-congratulatory speeches of the military men and their ideas for maintaining order in the newly unified Italy.
Two biopics on Verdi's life have been made: Giuseppe Verdi (1935), released as The Life of Giuseppe Verdi in the U.S. in 1940, and Giuseppe Verdi (1953), released as The Life and Music of Giuseppe Verdi in the U.S. in 1957. Aspects of the composer's lifelong association with his publishing house are covered in Casa Ricordi (1954). ~ "Blue" Gene Tyranny, All Movie Guide
- 2009
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, Rossini, Verdi, Offenbach, Bellini and Bizet. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mariella Devia, Massimiliano Pisapia, (more)
- 2008
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 provide added accompaniment under the baton of Lorin Maazel. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 2008
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
- Starring:
- Kristianne Kaiser, Magdalena Anna Hofmann, (more)
- 2007
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, Rachmaninov and a number of other composers. Two soloists - alto vocalist Yuri Bashmet and concert pianist Yefim Bronfman - provide added musical support. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bashmet, Yefim Bronfman, (more)
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, heir to the unpopular outgoing prime minister, and Victor Yushchenko, a far more popular figure generally perceived as pro-western and pro-European Union - went head-to-head with one another. Yanukovich's official victory raised the ire of millions of Ukranians, who recalled the reported foul play of Yanukovich's predecessor, Leonid Kuchma, including corruption and possible involvement in the murder of a journalist he branded as unfavorable. Many inevitably perceived a link between those alleged crimes and Yanukovich's election, arguing that Kuchma deliberately set up Yanukovich's victory to guarantee political immunity for himself. With his documentary Orange Winter, Ukrainian filmmaker Andrei Zagdansky travels to Kiev for a firsthand look at the events that followed, including the most aggressive and widespread protests in the country's history, and speculates on the state of Kiev's future in light of Yanukovich's appointment to the said post. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 2006
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. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 2006
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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 directs and designed the costumes and sets; The Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real provide musical accompaniment. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norah Amsellem, Itxaro Mentxaka, (more)
- 2006
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. It features musical accompaniment by the Konzertverzinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor as conducted by Rubert Huber.
~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 2006
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, Bizet, Rossini, and Puccini. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Plácido Domingo, Anna Netrebko, (more)
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 (Inva Mula), he becomes powerfully enraged. Rigoleto secures the services of the hired killer Sparafucile to restore honor to his daughter's name, but his bid for revenge takes an unexpected turn. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2005
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. Francesco Maria Piave pens libretto, and Felix Breisach directs for video. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2005
- NR
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 with a chorus of witches in three-part harmony, beginning the final act with refugees gathering on the boundaries of England, and concluding with a chorus of bards celebrating the vanquishing of the tyrant, but other than these minor alterations, he generally sought to preserve the fundamental elements of Shakespeare's narrative. In this production of that opera, mounted by Phyllida Lloyd at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in 2004, Carlos Álvarez performs as Macbeth, with Roberto Scandiuzzi as Banquo, Maria Guleghina as Lady Macbeth, and Marco Berti as Macduff. The Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu accompanies the production, conducted by Bruno Campanella. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 2005
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 provided by Antonio García Gutiérrez. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leo Nucci
- 2004
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 Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2004
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 Hvorostovsky headline the performance, and the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro La Fenice perform under the guiding hand of conductor Lorin Maazel. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrizia Ciofi, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, (more)
- 2004
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 musical accompaniment. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Miles, Ramón Vargas, (more)
- 2003
This performance of Giuseppe Verdi's opera, Tancredi features the vocal talents of Daniela Barcellona in the title role. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniela Barcellona
