Katia Ricciarelli Movies

This deeply nostalgic, operatic family drama represented a labor of love for its director, Pupi Avati (The Story of Boys and Girls). A thinly-disguised autobiographical account, it dramatizes the director's formative years growing up in early 1950s Italy. As events both significant and insignificant transpire with his family, teenager Bep (Neri Marcore, Avati's onscreen surrogate) spends many memorable hours spying on the customers of a local bar from his bedroom window. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

The famed Theatre Royal venue on Drury Lane in London, England served as the locale for this classical music concert by various performers, staged to raise funds for the José Carreras International Leukaemia Founation and St. Sophia's Children's Hospital of Athens, Greece. Artists include: Carreras, on such works as L'aurora di bianco vestita from Leoncavallo's Mattinata and Purquoi me reveiller from Massenet's Werther; Katia Ricciarelli, on selections including O mio babbino caro from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi; and Agnes Baltsa, on Seguédille from Bizet's Carmen. Vocalist Ruggero Raimondi also appears and contributes his vocal skills. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

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 briefly interrupted while Domingo participated in the rescue operations following the Mexico City earthquake). While Katia Ricciarelli as Desdemona and Justino Diaz as Iago perform their own singing, Zeffirelli's Cassio--played by real-life European prince Urbano Barberini--is dubbed by Ezio de Cesare. The director made several cuts in the original libretto and score in order to accommodate the film's two-hour time limit, but these excisions are done with taste and discretion. Because of the excessive violence in the third act--two murders, a suicide, a superficial throat-slashing--Otello was released with a PG rating. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

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 one man's battle to reconcile his personal and political views. Un Ballo in Maschera also features Katia Ricciarelli. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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 Cappuccilli co-star. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide