The 65th annual Venice International Film Festival, was held from 27 August 2008 to 6 September 2008, at Venice Lido in Italy. The festival was dedicated to the late Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine. German filmmaker Wim Wenders was the jury president for the main competition. Russian actress Kseniya Rappoport was the Host of the opening and closing ceremonies. The Golden Lion was awarded to The Wrestler by Darren Aronofsky. Italian filmmaker Ermanno Olmi received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement during the festival. A restored version of Federico Fellini's 1952 comedy The White Sheik, with forty minutes of newly discovered footage. The record for the longest film at the festival was broken by Lav Diaz's Melancholia, with a running time of approximately seven and a half hours, which was included in the Orizzonti competition section. The festival opened with Burn After Reading by Joel and Ethan Coen.

The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) is regarded as the natural successor to the tradition of Giuseppe Verdi and is considered the greatest Italian opera proponent of his time. Best known for his 12 operas, his style quickly departed from the predominant Romantic Italian style and he emerged as the most significant representative of verismo, a radically realist approach.

The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) is regarded as the natural successor to the tradition of Giuseppe Verdi and is considered the greatest Italian opera proponent of his time. Best known for his 12 operas, his style quickly departed from the predominant Romantic Italian style and he emerged as the most significant representative of verismo, a radically realist approach.

The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) is regarded as the natural successor to the tradition of Giuseppe Verdi and is considered the greatest Italian opera proponent of his time. Best known for his 12 operas, his style quickly departed from the predominant Romantic Italian style and he emerged as the most significant representative of verismo, a radically realist approach.

The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) is regarded as the natural successor to the tradition of Giuseppe Verdi and is considered the greatest Italian opera proponent of his time. Best known for his 12 operas, his style quickly departed from the predominant Romantic Italian style and he emerged as the most significant representative of verismo, a radically realist approach.

"E lucevan le stelle" ("And the stars were shining") is a romantic aria from the third act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca from 1900, composed to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It is sung in act 3 by Mario Cavaradossi (tenor), a painter in love with the singer Tosca, while he waits for his execution on the roof of Castel Sant'Angelo. Written in B minor, it is one of the most famous opera arias. The vocal range extends from F♯3 to A4. The aria is considered part of the spinto tenor repertoire. The aria is introduced by a somber clarinet solo. The incipit of the melody (heard in outline earlier in the act, as the sky lightens and the gaoler prepares for the execution) is repeated on the lines "O dolci baci, o languide carezze" ("Oh, sweet kisses and languorous caresses"), and also restated in forte in the closing bars of the opera, as Tosca jumps from the ramparts.

Teodulo Mabellini (2 April 1817 – 10 March 1897) was an Italian composer.

The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) is regarded as the natural successor to the tradition of Giuseppe Verdi and is considered the greatest Italian opera proponent of his time. Best known for his 12 operas, his style quickly departed from the predominant Romantic Italian style and he emerged as the most significant representative of verismo, a radically realist approach.

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (22 December 1858 – 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 line of composers, stemming from the late Baroque era. Though his early work was firmly rooted in traditional late-nineteenth-century Romantic Italian opera, it later developed in the realistic verismo style, of which he became one of the leading exponents. His most renowned works are La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and the unfinished Turandot (posthumously completed by Franco Alfano), all of which are among the most frequently performed and recorded in the entirety of the operatic repertoire.

Madama Butterfly (Italian pronunciation: [maˈdaːma ˈbatterflai]; Madame Butterfly) is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The Schickling catalog number is SC 74. It is based on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther Long, which, in turn, was based on stories told to Long by his sister Jennie Correll, and on the semi-autobiographical 1887 French novel Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti. Long's version was dramatized by David Belasco as the one-act play Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan, which, after premiering in New York in 1900, moved to London, where Puccini saw it in the summer of that year. The original version of the opera, in two acts, had its premiere on 17 February 1904 at La Scala in Milan. It was poorly received, despite having such notable singers as soprano Rosina Storchio, tenor Giovanni Zenatello and baritone Giuseppe De Luca in lead roles. This was due in part to a late completion by Puccini, which gave inadequate time for rehearsals. Puccini revised the opera, splitting the second act in two, with the Humming Chorus as a bridge to what became Act III, and making other changes. Success ensued, starting with the first performance on 28 May 1904 in Brescia.

The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) is regarded as the natural successor to the tradition of Giuseppe Verdi and is considered the greatest Italian opera proponent of his time. Best known for his 12 operas, his style quickly departed from the predominant Romantic Italian style and he emerged as the most significant representative of verismo, a radically realist approach.

"Nessun dorma" (Italian: [nesˌsun ˈdɔrma]; lit. 'Let no one sleep') is an aria from the final act of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot (text by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni) and one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, il principe ignoto (the unknown prince), who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful but cold Princess Turandot. Any man who wishes to wed Turandot must first answer her three riddles; if he fails, he will be beheaded. In the aria, Calaf expresses his triumphant assurance that he will win the princess. Although "Nessun dorma" had long been a staple of operatic recitals, Luciano Pavarotti popularised the piece beyond the opera world in the 1990s following his performance of it for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Both Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo released singles of the aria; Pavarotti's reached number 2 in the UK, and it appeared on the best-selling classical album of all time, The Three Tenors in Concert. The Three Tenors, which includes José Carreras, performed the aria at three subsequent FIFA World Cup Finals, in 1994 in Los Angeles, 1998 in Paris, and 2002 in Yokohama. Since 1990, many crossover artists have performed and recorded it. The aria has been sung often in films and on television.

"O soave fanciulla" ("O gentle maiden") is a romantic duet from the first act of Giacomo Puccini's 1896 opera La bohème. It is sung as the closing number in act 1 by Rodolfo (tenor) and Mimì (soprano) where they realise they have fallen for each other.

Music for the Requiem Mass is any music that accompanies the Requiem, or Mass for the Dead, in the Catholic Church. This church service has inspired hundreds of compositions, including settings by Victoria, Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi, Fauré, Dvořák, Duruflé and Britten. For centuries settings of the Mass for the Dead were to be chanted in liturgical service monophonically. Later the settings became polyphonic, Victoria's famous 1605 a cappella work being an example. By Mozart's time (1791) it was standard to embed the dramatic and long Dies irae (Day of Wrath) sequence, and to score with orchestra. Eventually many settings of the Requiem, not least Verdi's (1874), were essentially concert pieces unsuitable for church service.

This is a list of Private Passions episodes from 2010 to 2014. It does not include repeated episodes or compilations.

Madama Butterfly (Italian pronunciation: [maˈdaːma ˈbatterflai]; Madame Butterfly) is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The Schickling catalog number is SC 74. It is based on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther Long, which, in turn, was based on stories told to Long by his sister Jennie Correll, and on the semi-autobiographical 1887 French novel Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti. Long's version was dramatized by David Belasco as the one-act play Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan, which, after premiering in New York in 1900, moved to London, where Puccini saw it in the summer of that year. The original version of the opera, in two acts, had its premiere on 17 February 1904 at La Scala in Milan. It was poorly received, despite having such notable singers as soprano Rosina Storchio, tenor Giovanni Zenatello and baritone Giuseppe De Luca in lead roles. This was due in part to a late completion by Puccini, which gave inadequate time for rehearsals. Puccini revised the opera, splitting the second act in two, with the Humming Chorus as a bridge to what became Act III, and making other changes. Success ensued, starting with the first performance on 28 May 1904 in Brescia.

The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) is regarded as the natural successor to the tradition of Giuseppe Verdi and is considered the greatest Italian opera proponent of his time. Best known for his 12 operas, his style quickly departed from the predominant Romantic Italian style and he emerged as the most significant representative of verismo, a radically realist approach.

Teodulo Mabellini (2 April 1817 – 10 March 1897) was an Italian composer.