Plebs may not recognize Zeffirelli, but he's a very big name in the movie industry...
Franco Zeffirelli, one of Italy’s most revered artistic figures, has died at the age of 96.
In a career spanning more than 60 years, Zeffirelli was staggeringly prolific and equally celebrated as a director of films, theatre and opera. Several of his stage productions became successes on screen – most notably a vibrant version of Romeo and Juliet which starred a young Judi Dench at the Old Vic in London and led to an Oscar-winning box-office smash in the late 1960s.
Franco Zeffirelli – a life in pictures
Shakespeare inspired other hit movies for Zeffirelli: The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Hamlet with Mel Gibson and Glenn Close, and a film of Verdi’s Otello with Plácido Domingo. His lavish opera productions brought sensational performances by Joan Sutherland and Maria Callas; 25 years after the latter’s death he directed a biopic, Callas Forever, starring Fanny Ardant. His filmed operas reached large TV audiences and he was celebrated as a great populariser.
Zeffirelli believed he had inherited his passion for music from his grandfather, a conductor. He was born on 12 February 1923 and raised in Florence, the illegitimate son of a fashion designer, Alaide Garosi Cipriani, and wool merchant Ottorino Corsi, both of whom were married to other people. He was named by his mother after a line about zeffiretti (breezes) in a Mozart aria. Cipriani, whose career was damaged by the scandal, died when her son was six and he was taken in by his aunt.
His passion for theatre was sparked as a child during holidays spent in Tuscany where he saw performances by travelling players. “I’ve never believed anything at the theatre as much as the fantasies those storytellers brought us,” he wrote in his autobiography.
He attended a Roman Catholic school in Florence where he said he was sexually assaulted by a priest. When the second world war broke out, he joined the partisan effort, twice escaped death by firing squad and became an interpreter for the Scots Guards. In the postwar years he switched from plans to be an architect and began a career as an actor in radio productions, including a role alongside Anna Magnani in L’Onorevole Angelina. Many years later, he would direct Magnani’s return to the stage in the long-running show La Lupa.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2...firelli-revered-italian-director-dies-aged-96
Franco Zeffirelli, one of Italy’s most revered artistic figures, has died at the age of 96.
In a career spanning more than 60 years, Zeffirelli was staggeringly prolific and equally celebrated as a director of films, theatre and opera. Several of his stage productions became successes on screen – most notably a vibrant version of Romeo and Juliet which starred a young Judi Dench at the Old Vic in London and led to an Oscar-winning box-office smash in the late 1960s.
Franco Zeffirelli – a life in pictures
Shakespeare inspired other hit movies for Zeffirelli: The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Hamlet with Mel Gibson and Glenn Close, and a film of Verdi’s Otello with Plácido Domingo. His lavish opera productions brought sensational performances by Joan Sutherland and Maria Callas; 25 years after the latter’s death he directed a biopic, Callas Forever, starring Fanny Ardant. His filmed operas reached large TV audiences and he was celebrated as a great populariser.
Zeffirelli believed he had inherited his passion for music from his grandfather, a conductor. He was born on 12 February 1923 and raised in Florence, the illegitimate son of a fashion designer, Alaide Garosi Cipriani, and wool merchant Ottorino Corsi, both of whom were married to other people. He was named by his mother after a line about zeffiretti (breezes) in a Mozart aria. Cipriani, whose career was damaged by the scandal, died when her son was six and he was taken in by his aunt.
His passion for theatre was sparked as a child during holidays spent in Tuscany where he saw performances by travelling players. “I’ve never believed anything at the theatre as much as the fantasies those storytellers brought us,” he wrote in his autobiography.
He attended a Roman Catholic school in Florence where he said he was sexually assaulted by a priest. When the second world war broke out, he joined the partisan effort, twice escaped death by firing squad and became an interpreter for the Scots Guards. In the postwar years he switched from plans to be an architect and began a career as an actor in radio productions, including a role alongside Anna Magnani in L’Onorevole Angelina. Many years later, he would direct Magnani’s return to the stage in the long-running show La Lupa.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2...firelli-revered-italian-director-dies-aged-96
