Nazzari, Amedeo

The Valachi Papers

Sentenced to 15 years in prison, former mob "button man" Joe Valachi (Charles Bronson) turns informant when he learns top Mafia capo Vito Genovese (Lino Ventura) has put a $100,000 contract out on his life. From thievery and extortion to vengeance and murder, Valachi spills the innermost workings of the Cosa Nostra, culminating in his riveting testimony before a Senate subcommittee on organized crime. Based on Peter Maa's best-selling book, THE VALACHI PAPERS is gripping, shocking and absolutely true, "a hard-hitting, violence-ridden documented melodrama of the underworld" (Variety).

Nights of Cabiria - Criterion Collection

A year after his international breakthrough film La Strada, Federico Fellini and his leading lady/wife Giulietta Masina collaborated on another masterpiece, a magical mix of neorealism and romantic optimism set on the streets of Rome. Masina's moon-faced and bright-eyed Cabiria is a passionate streetwalker with a heart as big as Italy and the emotional spontaneity of a child, a woman with a hearty passion for life whose constant weakness is falling in love with mercenary creeps. For a couple of hours we share the dreams and disillusionments of Cabiria as she rattles around Rome before once again losing her heart. The bittersweet heartbreak is tempered with a soaring celebration of the human spirit: no other Fellini film offers such honest hope in the face of such bitter devastation. Fellini left the poor and the working class to revel in the decadence of Rome's high society for his next film, La Dolce Vita, a film that could have sprung from Cabiria's hilarious chance interlude with a matinee idol (played by Amedeo Nazzari). Rambling and leisurely paced, Nights of Cabiria is a sweet film of warmth and simple grace. It became the basis of Neil Simon's American musical Sweet Charity, with Shirley Maclaine taking Masina's role in Bob Fosse's film version. --Sean Axmaker

Giulietta Masina won Best Actress at Cannes as the title character of one of Fellini's most haunting films. Oscar® winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Nights of Cabiria (Le Notti di Cabiria) is the tragic story of a naive prostitute searching for true love in the seediest sections of Rome. Criterion proudly presents the restored director's cut in a breathtaking new transfer.

Alina

Donizetti - Anna Bolena / Bonynge, Sutherland, Morris, Canadian Opera Company

It would have been better, of course, if this 1984 production of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, or at least its title role, had been filmed 20 years earlier, when Joan Sutherland's voice was in its spectacular prime. But like her Canadian Opera Norma, dating from 1981, this is a better-late-than-never documentation of one of the most remarkable voices of the 20th century.

Lotfi Mansouri spared no effort or expense in making this production special. He personally directed the staging, and handpicked an outstanding cast (right down to the very young and then-unknown Ben Heppner in the small role of Hervey). The visual elements--sets, costumes, and camera work--are also handled with great care, and Sutherland's positive response to this dedication can be sensed in her performance as the unfortunate wife of King Henry VIII. James Morris is best-known as a Wagnerian singer--perhaps the leading Wotan of our time--but he is equally at home in many of the villainous roles that are the fate of bass- baritones (Iago, Scarpia, Don Giovanni). In this sinister tale of an innocent woman ruthlessly destroyed, he shows a surprising knack for the bel canto style. Judith Forst is also excellent in the role of Jane Seymour. --Joe McLellan

Donizetti - L'Elisir d'Amore / Esposito, Machado, Marrucci, Canzian, Schrott, Muus, Macerata Opera

Slowly the camera roams through the narrow streets of Macerata, past the cathedral, the monuments, the library and the university, until it reaches the Arena Sferisterio. In the 1820s this was a competition venue for handball. At the beginning of the twentieth century the `neo-classical monster', as the stadium is disrespectfully called, was also discovered as an opera venue and a dazzling backdrop for the Macerata Opera Festival. In July 2002, An audience of 5000 had gathered to listen to the new production of Elixir of love under the direction Saverio Marconi, conducted by Niels Muus. Using a trick the director succeeded in preserving the open-air atmosphere while at the same time eliminating the echo of the voices and instruments. Donizetti's operas had for a long time been dismissed as frivolities, as repertoire works, "which can be staged anywhere", as W.H.L Riehl sarcastically remarked in his `Musikalische Charakterbilder' (Musical Character Studies), "whether in Paris or Butzbach, with a good or a bad cast, complete or in part, rehearsed as a showpiece or as a stopgap, not too long and not too short, not too difficult and not too easy,comprehensible to all and stimulating the senses of many". This prejudice is perhaps due to the fact that composing came easily to Donizetti; he even boasted that he could compose a symphony within one and a quarter hour. The comedy The Elixir of Love is said to have taken him all of a fortnight to write. The premiere in the Teatro della Canobbiana in Milan in 1832, was an unqualified success; it resulted in a series of 32 sold-out houses for the composer and even inspired Richard Wagner in 1840 to produce a piano score of the work. Donizetti based his work on a French fable by Eugene Scribe, which Felice Romani turned into a multifaceted libretto of two acts.

Donizetti - Lucia di Lammermoor / Cillario, Moffo, Kozma

It would have been better, of course, if this 1984 production of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, or at least its title role, had been filmed 20 years earlier, when Joan Sutherland's voice was in its spectacular prime. But like her Canadian Opera Norma, dating from 1981, this is a better-late-than-never documentation of one of the most remarkable voices of the 20th century.

Lotfi Mansouri spared no effort or expense in making this production special. He personally directed the staging, and handpicked an outstanding cast (right down to the very young and then-unknown Ben Heppner in the small role of Hervey). The visual elements--sets, costumes, and camera work--are also handled with great care, and Sutherland's positive response to this dedication can be sensed in her performance as the unfortunate wife of King Henry VIII. James Morris is best-known as a Wagnerian singer--perhaps the leading Wotan of our time--but he is equally at home in many of the villainous roles that are the fate of bass- baritones (Iago, Scarpia, Don Giovanni). In this sinister tale of an innocent woman ruthlessly destroyed, he shows a surprising knack for the bel canto style. Judith Forst is also excellent in the role of Jane Seymour. --Joe McLellan

Donizetti - L'Elisir d'Amore / Bergonzi, Scotto, Taddei, Gavazzeni, Florence Opera

Life of Donizetti