Beniamino Gigli

Imagine a window into the past. Imagine finally connecting singers' bodies to the voices you have always treasured on record, watching footage of performances from another era. All of singers featured here have something in common (with one exception, Sutherland): they sang and performed on stage before the advent of filmed opera. . And it shows, for the first time, a few tantalizing minutes of recently recovered footage from Callas' legendary Lisbon Traviata, featuring Addio dal Passato and Parigi oh cara with Alfredo Kraus. This DVD will leave you asking for more.

The plans of a publicity agent to put on a charity concert are nearly wrecked by a lawyer who wants to take over a restaurant, but the situation is saved by local co-operation.

A taxi driver, with singing ambitions, finds an abandoned baby in his cab and begins to look for his mother. He doesn't find her but succeeds in finding two people who want to adopt the child.

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.

Released from prison after 20 years, Canio finds his daughter adopted by a wealthy family and about to marry. When he meets Leoncavallo, the composer is moved to create one of history's greatest operas.

1938 German-Italian film.

The great Italian opera composer recalls his eventful life on his deathbed: his childhood in Busseto, his studies in Milan, his first opera "Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio", the death of his wife and his children killed by smallpox.

A romance between two temperamental singing stars. Highlights include a lengthy selection from Faust, with Gigli making a most impressive Mephistopheles. The plot takes a melodramatic turn towards the climax, with the lives of the characters mirrored in their on-stage behavior. Director Carmine Gallone was something of an expert in the field of filmed opera, as witness his Tosca, Rigoletto and Il Trovatore.

A young British woman, tricked into believing she was used during a whirlwind romance, marries a gentle widowed Italian opera star, whose songs she and her first love shared.

Ave Maria was the second film-starring vehicle for legendary operatic tenor Beniamino Gigli. Mourning the loss of the only woman he ever loved, concert singer Tino Dossi (Gigli) is temporarily shaken from his doldrums by vivacious Montmartre entertainer Claudette (Kaethe Von Nagy). Dossi doesn't realize that Claudette is merely using him to advance her own singing career. Ultimately won over by Dossi's sincerity and courtesy, Claudette falls in love with him for real, only to suffer the pangs of conscience as a result. About to kill herself, she decides instead to return to Dossi's arms, vowing never to confess her original mercenary intentions.