House Of Ricordi

The House of Ricordi was a music publishing firm based in Milan, and this film offers a marvelous pastiche of music in paying tribute to Italy's golden age of opera. According to the film, the firm helped many of Italy's greatest composers and, in vignette fashion, the film offers glimpses into the lives of these composers, including Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and Gaetano Donizetti. The opera sequences are beautifully staged and include excperpts from "The Barber of Seville," "The Puritans," "The Masked Ball," "Otello," and "La Boheme."