Verdi

for the inspired reconstruction of atmosphere of a page from Italy's past. for beautiful performance of Ronald Pickup. for the seduction of a fight for values who impress scene by scene. for the grace of music. and as homage to a great composer who becomes vulnerable, courageous hero of his nation. good introduction to his life. and interesting piece of biographic portrait who use the clichés for large, convincing, powerful image of a personality who becomes symbol of his mother land. and that transforms the film in a manifesto, like the music of Verdi. short, a beautiful film. who could represent a nice surprise for the viewer who prefers this genre.

THE LIFE OF VERDI is a stunning, beautiful and virtually exhaustive (at about 10 hours) chronicle of the life of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. Formerly available on the controversial Kultur label, this new DVD release by Acorn Media is a dream come true for people who appreciate composer biographies, historical epics and, especially, this particular film, which was the last film by Italian director/writer Renato Castellani. The transfer is excellent, whereas the previously available print was mediocre at best. This new release looks crisp and does justice to the film's visual artistry--it looks very much like a series of paintings.

Verdi lived a long, rich life and his output was truly amazing, mostly operas--and most of his operas were masterpieces. There are generous allotments of Verdi's glorious music throughout this film and the period detail is lushly evocative of Verdi's life and times. Ronald Pickup is perfect as Verdi. He is probably the only "name" and face that will be familiar to at least some outside of Europe. Pickup has been in countless films and television programs, including several other composer biographies, though here, finally, he plays the title role. Speaking of names, when THE LIFE OF VERDI was shown on PBS way back in the early eighties, Burt Lancaster was the on camera narrator. I recall this very clearly because I remember being enthralled by the series even back then. In this version--perhaps for the better--Lancaster is not seen on camera (his star power was a bit distracting, if I recall). He does, however, continue to narrate in voice-over. Lancaster was a big fan of opera and his enthusiasm bubbles through in his voice, despite some mispronunciations that some will find distracting.

That's a minor observance compared to the beauty and lovingly re-created world that director/writer Castellani presents. Castellani will not be entirely unfamiliar to North American audiences, though your tastes might have to be a bit specialized to recognize his name and style of film making. One of his first films, from 1954, was a version of Romeo & Juliet starring Laurence Harvey and is a gorgeous evocation of Shakespeare's play, if a bit slowly paced. It even has John Gielgud as the Chorus! It took another Italian, Franco Zeffirelli, to bring Italy and Shakespeare to life for a contemporary audience back in 1968.

A few years before making THE LIFE OF VERDI, Castellani turned his attention to another great Italian, Leonardo Da Vinci, in a five part television film that I recall with great fondness, for it really brought Leonardo to life and gave me a deeper appreciation of his incredible achievements.

But back to THE LIFE OF VERDI. Thank you to the distributors of this magnificent film! The time you invest in watching it will pay dividends, for like any great work of art, it will stay with you long afterwards.

The life of someone who created visuals, drama, sounds, cannot be conveyed in a book. Picked this up second hand, and glad I did. This is a remarkable telling of the story of Verdi, his music, his place in history. It has no dragons, and shows well what passed for special effects in the 19th century. (Millennials beware, you have to think) It is intelligent, and contains both much information but also conveys a very different time, and does require an attention span. The audio and video quality is pure 1982, but thankfully, this wonderful series has been preserved and is available. A creative genius whose work resonates today.

At this point I have watched only two of the seven episodes but I am questioning my decision to buy this series. Even allowing for the fact it was done in 1982, the production values are mediocre. Both the audio and video quality on the 4 DVD set are poor.They appear to be dubs from the original VHS. The performances become incidental rather than the highlights they should be. Worst of all is the dubbed in English sound track which gives the whole thing an artificial quality. It is like watching a radio program. I'll slog through the rest of it and may amend this review if it improves. But I am not optimistic. One positive is that the series is historically accurate both in the story line and the occasionally inserted voice over narration. But if that's all I had wanted, I would have bought a book.

High quality biography! A fantastic, historical, well researched super production. Castellani did a very good job on biography and cinematographic art. The casting is excellent and Ronald Pickup is perfect as Verdi. The musical selection is also superior, and the performance of the interpreters are first class. Very good and famous voices are singing its preferred parts. The operatic performances are well cut. A rich scenario and also a nice review of the theatrical background technology at Verdi's time could be seen on the sunrise in "I Lombardi", the waves and the storms in "Otello", and in waterfalls. They are superb. For Verdi lovers it's a must, but also for non initiates it will be delightful. May be Giuseppina is a little to subservient and a bit away from a real woman. Also the final scenes are a little to long. By the way, the name of the opera is Rigoletto and not Rigaletto.