Mario Lanfranchi (30 June 1927 – 3 January 2022) was an Italian film, theatre, and television director, screenwriter, producer, collector, and actor.

Career

Lanfranchi was born in

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...

. After receiving a degree at the Drama Academy ( Accademia dei Filodrammatici) of Milan in the early 1950s, he was hired by Sergio Pugliese at

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

, at the onset of Italian television. He was the first to bring opera to the small screen, in 1956, with '' Madama Butterfly'', by

Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini ( Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long ...

, which introduced to a wide public Anna Moffo, at that time an unknown American soprano, who became his wife for 17 years. In 1967 he began his career as a film director with the western movie ''

Death Sentence Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

''. He lived in a 16th-century villa in Santa Maria del Piano outside Parma (). Lanfranchi died in Langhirano, near Parma, on 3 January 2022, at the age of 94.

Opera TV productions and films

* 1956 – ''Madama Butterfly'' – Anna Moffo, Renato Cioni, Miti Truccato Pace, Afro Poli * 1956 – ''La fanciulla del West'' –

Gigliola Frazzoni Gigliola Frazzoni (22 February 1923 – 3 December 2016) was an Italian operatic soprano. She was born in Bologna, where she studied with Blanche Marchesi and Olivio Secchiaroli, and made her debut at the Teatro Comunale Bologna, as Mimi in ''La ...

Ken Neate Kenneth (Ken) Neate (28 July 1914 – 27 June 1997) was an Australian operatic and concert tenor, opera producer and singing teacher, composer and author. He appeared at the Bayreuth Festival in 1963 as Loge in Rheingold and he was noted as a dr ...

Mario Petri Mario Petri (21 January 1922 – 26 January 1985) was an Italian operatic bass-baritone particularly associated with Mozart and Rossini roles. Life and career Petri was born in Perugia and began his career after World War II, making his stage d ...

* 1956 – ''La sonnambula'' – Anna Moffo, Danilo Vega, Plinio Clabassi * 1958 – ''Turandot'' – Lucille Udovich, Franco Corelli, Renata Mattioli, Plinio Clabassi * 1959 – ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' – Anna Moffo, Nicola Filacuridi, Dino Dondi, Ferruccio Mazzoli * 1960 – ''Tosca'' –

Magda Olivero Magda Olivero (née Maria Maddalena Olivero) (25 March 1910 – 8 September 2014), was an Italian operatic soprano. Her career started in 1932 when she was 22, and spanned five decades, establishing her "as an important link between the era of th ...

, Alvinio Misciano,

Giulio Fioravanti Giulio Fioravanti (17 October 1923, Ascoli Piceno – 3 May 1999, Milan) was an Italian operatic baritone, particularly associated with the Italian repertory. He studied first jurisprudence and work one year as a jurist in his native city bef ...

* 1962 – ''La serva padrona'' – Anna Moffo, Paolo Montarsolo * 1968 – ''La traviata'' – Anna Moffo,

Franco Bonisolli Franco Bonisolli (May 25, 1938 – October 30, 2003) was an Italian operatic tenor, particularly associated with the Italian repertory, notably as Manrico and Calaf. Life and career Bonisolli was born in Rovereto, Italy. He studied with Alfr ...

, Gino Bechi (film) * 1971 – ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' – Anna Moffo, Lajos Kozma, Giulio Fioravanti, Paolo Washington (film)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lanfranchi, Mario 1927 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Italian male actors 20th-century Italian male writers 20th-century Italian screenwriters Italian film directors Italian television directors Italian theatre directors Italian male screenwriters Italian television producers Impresarios Italian male actors Book and manuscript collectors People in greyhound racing Actors from Parma