Pietro Mascagni was an Italian composer primarily known for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music. While it was often held that Mascagni, like Ruggero Leoncavallo, was a "one-opera man" who could never repeat his first success, L'amico Fritz and Iris have remained in the repertoire in Europe since their premieres.
Stoyanka Savova Nikolova, best known by her stage name Elena Nicolai, was a Bulgarian operatic mezzo-soprano.
Attila is a 1954 Italian-French co-production, directed by Pietro Francisci and produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti for Lux Film. Based on the life of Attila the Hun, it stars Anthony Quinn as Attila and Sophia Loren as Honoria, with French leading man, Henri Vidal, as the Hun's antagonist, Flavius Aetius. Irene Papas, in the second of three contract pictures for Lux Film, plays one of Attila's wives, Grune. Ettore Manni, Christian Marquand, and Claude Laydu are among the supporting cast of mostly French and Italian actors. American Scott Marlowe (1932–2001) made his screen debut in the film. Along with The Pride and the Passion and Houseboat, it was one of Loren's biggest box-office successes during the 1950s.
The Valiant is a 1962 British/Italian international co-production film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring John Mills, Ettore Manni, Roberto Risso, Robert Shaw, and Liam Redmond. It is based on the Italian manned torpedo attack which seriously damaged the two British battleships Valiant and Queen Elizabeth and the oil tanker Sagona at the port of Alexandria in December 1941.
Domenico Monleone was an Italian composer of operas, most noted for his opera Cavalleria rusticana of 1907, which for a while rivalled the success of Mascagni's work of the same name which was from the same source. The work was the third opera to be based on Verga's 1884 theatrical adaptation of his own short story, Cavalleria rusticana, Stanislao Gastaldon’s Mala Pasqua (1888) being the first, and Mascagni's famous opera (1890) being the second. Mascagni and his lawyers intervened and Monleone changed the opera ‘beyond recognition’ setting the music to a new libretto. In this form it was presented as La giostra dei falchi in 1914.
Appointment for Murder is a 1951 Italian crime melodrama film drama directed by Baccio Bandini.
Umberto Spadaro was an Italian film actor.
Funniest Show on Earth is a 1953 Italian comedy film directed by Mario Mattoli and starring May Britt. It is the first Italian film in 3D.
Ettore Manni was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1952 and 1979.
I Kill, You Kill or Io uccido, tu uccidi is a 1965 Italian comedy film directed by Gianni Puccini.
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 short story of the same name and subsequent play by Giovanni Verga. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on 17 May 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Since 1893, it has often been performed in a so-called Cav/Pag double-bill with Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo.
Cavalleria rusticana is a 1982 Italian film directed by Franco Zeffirelli based on Pietro Mascagni's 1890 opera of the same name. It stars tenor Plácido Domingo, mezzo-soprano Elena Obraztsova, and baritone Renato Bruson, all singing their own roles. Georges Prêtre conducted the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra for the movie's soundtrack. The film was made for broadcast on television. In 2003, it was released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon, paired with Pagliacci, also starring Plácido Domingo and directed by Franco Zeffirelli.
Mala Pasqua! is an opera in three acts composed by Stanislao Gastaldon to a libretto by Giovanni Domenico Bartocci-Fontana. The libretto is based on Giovanni Verga's play, Cavalleria rusticana which Verga had adapted from his short story of the same name. Mala Pasqua! premiered on 9 April 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, six weeks before Pietro Mascagni's opera Cavalleria rusticana which was also based on Verga's play. Bartocci-Fontana's libretto adds some elements that were not in Verga's original and expands on others. The name of the Santuzza character was also changed to Carmela, but the basic plot and setting remain the same. Its title refers to the curse which Carmela places on Turiddu, the lover who had spurned her: "Mala Pasqua a te!". Following its Rome premiere, Mala Pasqua! had a few more performances in Perugia and Lisbon, but it was completely eclipsed by the phenomenal success of Mascagni's opera. After the 1891 Lisbon run it was not heard again until 2010 when it was given a semi-staged performance in Agrigento, Sicily.
Fratelli d'Italia is a 1952 Italian biographical-war film starring Ettore Manni. It depicts real life events of Austrian-born Italian irredentist and sailor Nazario Sauro.
La lupa is a 1953 Italian drama film directed by Alberto Lattuada.
Hercules, Prisoner of Evil is a 1964 Italian peplum film directed by Anthony Dawson and an uncredited Ruggero Deodato. Deodato, the official assistant director, replaced Margheriti as he was busy with the completion of the film The Fall of Rome. Deodato actually directed most of the film in actuality but Margheriti was credited as the director. The film is filled with a variety of horrific themes and elements, featuring a killer werewolf, and is as much a horror film as it is a peplum.
Bali is a 1970 Italian romance film directed by Ugo Liberatore and Paolo Heusch.
The Ship of Condemned Women is a 1953 Italian historical adventure-melodrama film written and directed by Raffaello Matarazzo and starring Kerima, May Britt and Ettore Manni. It is loosely based on the novel Histoire de 130 femmes by Léon Gozlan.
Kerima is a French former actress best known for her role in Outcast of the Islands. She was portrayed as of exotic extraction including Javanese and Algerian when she gained fame as an actress.
The Stranger Returns also known as Shoot First... Laugh Last!, is a 1967 Italian-German-American Spaghetti Western film directed by Luigi Vanzi. It is a sequel to A Stranger in Town.
