Rapsodia satanica explained

Rapsodia Satanica
Director:	Nino Oxilia
Based On:	Poems by Fausto Maria Martini
Starring:	Lyda BorelliAndrea HabayUgo BazziniGiovanni Cini
Music:	Pietro Mascagni
Country:	Italy
Language:	Silent (Italian intertitles)

Rapsodia Satanica is a 1915 Italian silent film directed by Nino Oxilia featuring Lyda Borelli in a female version of Faust based on poems by Fausto Maria Martini. Pietro Mascagni wrote his only film music for the film and conducted the first performance in July 1917.^[1] Mascagni was keen to take commission for the film music due to the financial burden of supporting two sickening brothers.^{[2] [3]}

The French-German TV channel Arte restored the film in 2006 and Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, conducted by Frank Strobel recorded Mascagni's score.

Cast

• Lyda Borelli as Contessa Alba d'Oltrevita
• Andrea Habay as Tristano
• Ugo Bazzini as Mephisto
• Giovanni Cini as Sergio

Notes and References

1. Alessandra Campana Opera and Modern Spectatorship in Late Nineteenth-Century 1107051894 2015 "a peculiar experiment involving a “diva film” and an opera composer: the silent film Rapsodia satanica (1914–17), interpreted by the famous actress Lyda Borelli, with an orchestral score by Pietro Mascagni"
2. Mascagni e il cinema: la musica per Rapsodia satanica 1987
3. Alan Mallach Pietro Mascagni and His Operas 2002 1555535240 -Page 214 "With few other immediate sources of income at hand, the forty-five thousand lire from Cines for Rapsodia satanica, as well as the fifty thousand promised for a second film score, were much on his mind."