Luigi Ricci

Tosca

A nasty Rome police chief circa 1800 forces the lover of a painter, suspected of harboring a political prisoner, to reveal the hiding place and to yield to his power and lust.

Rigoletto

A musical drama based on Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto.

Madame Butterfly

Japanese-Italian adaptation of Puccini's opera.

Casta diva

As soon as he graduated from the Naples Conservatory, Vincenzo Bellini meets Maddalena Fumaroli and immediately falls in love with her.

House of Ricordi

The film covers a hundred years in the lives of the Ricordi family, the Milan publishing house of the title, and the various composers and other historic personalities, whose careers intersected with the growth of the Ricordi house. It beautifully draws the parallel between the great music of the composers, the historic and social upheavals of their times, as well as the "smaller stories" of the successive generations of Ricordi.

The Path of Hope

The story of a group of Sicilian miners and their families decide to illegally cross the border to France and their hardships.

La signora dalle camelie

A courtesan sacrifices her relationship with a youthful admirer after the man's father pleads with her. Adapted from Giuseppe Verdi's 1853 opera in the three acts "La Traviata".

Before Him All Rome Trembled

An opera singer hides an American soldier in his house in Nazi-occupied Rome.

Rome, Open City

In WWII-era Rome, underground resistance leader Manfredi attempts to evade the Gestapo by enlisting the help of Pina, the fiancée of a fellow member of the resistance, and Don Pietro, the priest due to oversee her marriage. But it’s not long before the Nazis and the local police find him.

Broken Love

The well off daughter of a tenor breaks up a romance with a helpful youth from a misunderstanding. But she continues to cover him with his gambling debts despite her delicate health.

Primo amore

An Italian emigrant, who found fame and success in America, comes back to his hometown after over twenty years.

Manon Lescaut

Manon escapes with the young nobleman Des Grieux, then becomes a high-class courtesan and finally forced to exile to America.

The Dream of Butterfly

Italian filmmaker Carmine Gallone was still in his "operetta" mode when he helmed 1938's Il Sogno di Butterfly (Dream of the Butterfly) Maria Cebotari plays opera diva Rosa Belloni, currently starring in a production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly. The plot thickens when Rosa's backstage life begins to mirror the travails of the character she is portraying. The climax comes when Harry Peters (Fosco Giachetti), the American father of Rosa's illegitimate child, returns after four years with his new wife in tow, leading inexorably to a doleful ending both on- and offstage. Critics complained about the substandard photography in Il Sogno di Butterfly, but this might have been due to poor laboratory work.