Carlo Remotti

The film was a sensation and audiences all over the world were entranced. It was hugely influential and ushered in a whole era of Comedy, Italian Style. Aiding and abetting the mischievous fun was the wonderful score by Carlo Rustichelli. Rustichelli, born in 1916, had begun working in film in 1939 and by 1962 had become a hugely popular composer for Italian films. His first film for Pietro Germi was Lost Youth in 1948 and thus began one of the longest and most fruitful director/composer collaborations ever, with Rustichelli composing scores for all but the first of Germi’s films – eighteen in total. He also worked with other directors such as Billy Wilder, Mario Bava, Gillo Pontecorvo, Luigi Comencini, and provided scores for countless sword and sandal films, spaghetti westerns, crime films, and just about every genre imaginable. He was a superb melodist, and Divorce, Italian Style is rife with great themes, which all serve the film perfectly. In fact, the film would be unthinkable without Rustichelli’s wonderful and tuneful score.

Italian opera in Japan got started in the mid-1950s. The series title was Lirica Italiana, and back in the early days the international stars who appeared would have had to make at least six stops when flying out from Europe. Despite this exhausting journey the productions, mounted with the help of Japanese orchestras and choruses, were often legendary, and they are now being issued on DVD by the admirable American company Video Artists International.

Four internationally celebrated Verdians gather on the stage of The Royal Opera for an unforgettable night of music and drama. Tenor José Cura is thrilling as the freedom-fighting troubadour of the title; seductive baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky is his nemesis Count di Lina; acclaimed soprano Verónica Vilarroel is the object of their love; and Yvonne Naef dazzles as the vengeful gypsy Azucena. Carlo Rizzi conducts, and Elijah Moshinsky’s lavish production, which updates the action to the mid-19th century, fills the stage with breathtaking fight sequences and grand sets.

By bringing Catone to disc Carlo Ipata is celebrating the pasticcio, especially those curated by George Frideric Handel, as is the case with this new Glossa release. In a co-production involving the Fondazione Teatro di Pisa and the Händel Festspiele Halle, Ipata brings a further slant on Handel’s operatic career in London; whilst being busy with running the second Royal Academy of Music and writing his own operas, the composer was striving to present London audiences with selections from the best of recent Italian operas by other composers – all at the same time as giving his star singers the opportunity to show off early in the opera company’s season.