Mario Lanfranchi

{{Infobox person

| name = Mario Lanfranchi

| image = Mario Lanfranchi.jpg

| image_size = 235px

| alt =

| caption = Lanfranchi in 1968

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1927|6|30}}

| birth_place = Parma, Italy

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2022|1|3|1927|6|30}}

| death_place = Langhirano, Italy

| spouse = Anna Moffo (1957–1974 div.)

| occupation = Film and theatre director, screenwriter and television producer

| years_active = 1952–2021

| known for = La traviata (1968)
Death Sentence (1968)

}}

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. 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, 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, 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. He lived in a 16th-century villa in Santa Maria del Piano outside Parma ({{ill|Villa Lanfranchi|it}}).

Lanfranchi died in Langhirano, near Parma, on 3 January 2022, at the age of 94.{{Cite web|title=E' morto Mario Lanfranchi: multitalentuoso e giramondo regista che portò la lirica in tv|url=https://www.gazzettadiparma.it/arte-e-cultura/2022/01/03/news/e-morto-mario-lanfranchi-multitalentuoso-e-giramondo-regista-che-porto-la-lirica-in-tv-618699/|access-date=4 January 2022|website=www.gazzettadiparma.it|date=3 January 2022 |language=it}}

Opera TV productions and films

1956 – Madama Butterfly – Anna Moffo, Renato Cioni, Miti Truccato Pace, Afro Poli
1956 – La fanciulla del West – Gigliola Frazzoni, Ken Neate, Mario Petri
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, Alvinio Misciano, Giulio Fioravanti
1962 – La serva padrona – Anna Moffo, Paolo Montarsolo
1968 – La traviata – Anna Moffo, Franco Bonisolli, Gino Bechi (film)
1971 – Lucia di Lammermoor – Anna Moffo, Lajos Kozma, Giulio Fioravanti, Paolo Washington (film)

Other interests

File:Mario Lanfranchi with his greyhound El Tara in 2003.png

Lanfranchi was a well-known owner of greyhounds, owning the prefix 'El'.{{cite web|url=https://greyhoundstar.co.uk/remember-october-3-5/ |title=Remember When October |date=20 October 2019 |publisher=Greyhound Star | access-date=6 March 2024}} He owned several significant greyhounds including the UK open race win record holder El Tenor.{{cite web|url=https://www.gbgb.org.uk/racing/racing-legends/el-tenor/ |title=El Tenor |publisher=Greyhound Board of Great Britain | access-date=6 March 2024}}