Production: Bendico Srl
In collaboration with: Fondazione Teatro dell’Opera di Roma
With the support of: Credem Euromobiliare Private Banking
Written and Directed by: Edoardo Zucchetti
With: Plácido Domingo, Leo Nucci, Daniel Oren, Cecilia Gasdia, Raimonda Gaetani, Francesco Giambrone, Luca Salsi, Marco Gandini, Anna Biagiotti and others.
Premiere: Rome Film Festival

Trailer: TBD

Pagliacci di Zeffirelli – A Step into the Future, written and directed by Edoardo Zucchetti, is the first documentary to explore Franco Zeffirelli as a keen observer and interpreter of the contemporary world. Spanning Rome, London, Athens, Florence and Los Angeles, it combines previously unseen footage of the Maestro directing singers, mimes and acrobats with archival photographs, original set designs and first-hand testimonies from the artists and collaborators who worked alongside him, including Plácido Domingo, Cecilia Gasdia, Daniel Oren, Leo Nucci, Luca Salsi, Alessio Vlad, Marco Gandini, Francesco Giambrone and Raimonda Gaetani.

In 1992, General Manager Cresci unexpectedly asked Zeffirelli to stage Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci with only a few weeks’ notice. The Maestro accepted on one condition: that every member of the company would embrace what he considered a truly daring creative adventure.

At his side was his longtime collaborator and friend Raimonda Gaetani, whose research took her to Resina, near Naples. Exploring local markets, village celebrations, weddings and everyday life, she collected the colours, characters and atmosphere that would inspire what became Zeffirelli’s most contemporary production—and ultimately the most widely performed staging of Pagliacci, travelling across three continents for more than thirty years.

The documentary retraces this remarkable journey through previously unseen material from the Florence and Rome productions, preparatory works preserved in the Gaetani Archive, the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma Archive and the Franco Zeffirelli Foundation.

Conceived from an idea by Raimonda Gaetani, the documentary is produced by Bendico Srl with the support of Credem Euromobiliare Private Banking, in collaboration with the Fondazione Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and under the patronage of the Franco Zeffirelli Foundation.