Italian postcard by Ed. Art. Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Behind Sergio Tòfano the character of Signor Buonaventura si shown, Tofano's popular creation.
Giovanni Nanni (1888-1969) was a renowned Italian painter and illustrator of postcards, famous for his WWI postcard portraits of elegant ladies with capricious hats and his 1920s and 1930s Art Deco styled publicity for brands such as Olivetti, Pirelli, and Fernet Branca.
Sergio Tòfano (20 August 1886 – 28 October 1973) was an Italian actor, director, playwright, scene designer and illustrator.
Tofano was born in Rome. In 1909, he made his first appearance on stage with Ermete Novelli, then joined Virgilio Talli's company (1912–23). He soon specialized as a comic actor, giving his role a new elegance and complexity. He interpreted works of multiple authors going from Molnár to Shaw, from Romains to Pirandello, from Machiavelli to Molière, from Anton Checkov to Henrik Ibsen, Kaiser, an Bertolt Brecht. In 1924-26 Tofano worked with director and playwright Dario Niccodemi, and in 1927-1930 with Luigi Almirante and Giuditta Rissone, co-acting with Elsa Merlini, Vittorio De Sica, Evi Maltagliati, Gino Cervi and many others. During those years, he made his memorable performances as Doctor Knock in Jules Romains' homonymous play, and as Professor Toti in Luigi Pirandello's Pensaci, Giacomino!. He also led important theatrical firms. After the Second World War, he worked with the most important innovative stage directors such as Luchino Visconti and Giorgio Strehler .
In 1917 Tofano invented, for a children's magazine, Il Corriere dei Piccoli, a famous character, Signor Bonaventura, whose adventures lasted for more than forty years. He used to sign as Sto. He wrote and illustrated several children's books and illustrated The Chess Set in the Mirror by Massimo Bontempelli.
After a one off performance in the silent film Tigrana (Edouard Micheroux de Dillon, 1916), Tofano's film acting career really set off with his part of the usher Otello in the early sound film comedy La segretaria privata (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1931), starring Elsa Merlini and Nino Besozzi. Many other comedies at Cines-Pittaluga followed in the early 1930s, such as La telefonista (1932) with Isa Pola and Paprika (1933) with Elsa Merlini, while he had the lead in O la borsa, o la vita (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1933) and in Seconda B (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1934). Over the years, Tofano would work with a wide range of directors such as Mario Mattoli, Luigi Comencini, Pasquale Festa Campanile, Nanni Loy, Bernardo Bertolucci and Mario Monicelli. He would also direct two films, Cenerentola e il Signor Bonaventura (1941), shot at the Pisorno studios in Tirrenia, and Gian Burrasca (1943). From the start of television in Italy, Tofano acted in teleplays in the 1950s and 1960s such as Orgoglio e pregiudizio (Pride and Prejudice, 1957), L'idiota (The idiot, 1959), Mastro don Gesualdo (1964), Il conte di Montecristo (1966), I promessi sposi (The Betrothed, 1967), Le mie prigioni (1968, after the eponymous novel by Silvio Pellico), and I fratelli Karamazov (The Brothers Karamazov, 1969), plus two performances in the first (1965) and third (1968) season of Le inchieste del commissario Maigret.
Tofano married in 1923 with actress Rosetta Cavallari (1902-1960). They had a son, Gilberto Tofano, later on stage and TV director. In 1953 Tofano started teaching at the Roman theatre academy. After his retirement in 1960, he still continued teaching and having parts in television. In the same year, his wife, who suffered from depressions, killed herself. In 1973 Tofano died himself and was buried at the family tomb in Milan, next to his wife.
In his text on Tofano, Sergio Romano remembered in Corriere della Sera (2012), how impressive Tofano's part had been of the old servant Firs in the final scene of The Cherry Orchard, directed by Visconti in 1965 and one of Tofano's last stage performances. "But on the almost empty stage appeared Firs, forgotten by those to whom he had dedicated his life. In those few last minutes, while laying down on a sofa, he remembered the past and mumbled his last sentences. Tofano stole the show from Paolo Stoppa, Rina Morelli, Massimo Girotti, Lucilla Morlacchi, Ottavia Piccolo. In that momento the applause and some tears too were all for him."
Source: English and Italian Wikipedia, IMDB, www.lungomarecastiglioncello.it/persone/DIVERSI/Tofano/~S....
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Italian postcards. Art by Nanni. Depicts a typical Parisian of the 'apaches' low-life, often represented on stage and on film. Reproduction.
Tags: graphic design Nanni Italian Italy Italia Italiano Italiana 1930s 1920s disegno art portrait ritratto colour color colored coloured Vintage Vedette Postcard Postkarte POstale Postkaart Postal Picture Cinema Carte Cartolina Cine Carte Postale Card Celebrity Costume apaches Paris phantasie Fantasie phantasy
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Italian postcard. Art by Nanni. Depicts a typical Parisian of the 'apaches' low-life, often represented on stage and on film. Reproduction.
Tags: graphic design Nanni Italian Italy Italia Italiano Italiana 1930s 1920s disegno art portrait ritratto colour color colored coloured Vintage Vedette Postcard Postkarte POstale Postkaart Postal Picture Cinema Carte Cartolina Cine Carte Postale Card Celebrity Costume apaches Paris phantasie Fantasie phantasy
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Italian postcard. Portrait by Nanni. Tenor Antonio Cortis as the painter Mario Cavaradossi in the opera Tosca by Puccini. You can hear him sing the famous aria E lucevan le stelle from Tosca here (recording of 1929): www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgPUO1fQib0. Cortis should not be confused with Antonio Curtis, better known as the comedian Totò. Series La Voce del Padrone (HMV).
Antonio Cortis (12 August 1891 – 2 April 1952) was a Spanish tenor with an outstanding voice. He was acclaimed by audiences on both sides of the Atlantic for his exciting performances of Italian operatic works, especially those by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and the verismo composers such as Mascagni. After a three-year contract in Rome (1920-1922) and a long contract with the Chicago Civic Opera (1924-1932) he settled in Spain because of the Depression in the US. Because of the onset of the Spanish Civil War he stopped singing by the mid-1930s. between 1925 and 1930 he made many recordings of operatic arias and songs for HMV and Victor.
Tags: graphic design Nanni Italian Italy Italia Italiano Italiana 1930s 1920s disegno art portrait ritratto colour color colored coloured Vintage Vedette Postcard Postkarte POstale Postkaart Postal Picture Cinema Carte Cartolina Cine Carte Postale Card Celebrity Costume cantante lirico opera Tosca Mario Cavaradossi Giacomo Puccini Puccini Antonio Cortis
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Italian postcards. Portrait by Nanni. Ed. Artistiche Alberani. Feodor Chaliapin as Mephistofeles in Faust by Gounod.
Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin (Russian: Фёдор Ива́нович Шаля́пин) (1873–1938) was a Russian opera singer. The possessor of a large, deep and expressive bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form. His emigration from Russia in 1922, was painful. The Soviet government stripped Chaliapin of all his titles and honors. He settled in Paris, France. There he performed at the Paris Opera, as well as at numerous private concerts for Sergei Diaghilev. His acting and singing was sensational. He made many sound recordings between 1900 and 1938, of which the 1913 recordings of the Russian folk songs 'Vdol po Piterskoi' and 'The Song of the Volga Boatmen' are best known. The only sound film which shows his acting style is Don Quichotte/ Don Quixote (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1933). Chaliapin collaborated with Maxim Gorky, who wrote and edited his memoirs, which he published in 1933.
Tags: graphic design Nanni Italian Italy Italia Italiano Italiana 1930s 1920s disegno art portrait ritratto colour color colored coloured Vintage Vedette Postcard Postkarte POstale Postkaart Postal Picture Cinema Carte Cartolina Cine Carte Postale Card Celebrity Costume cantante lirico opera Alberani Feodor Chaliapin
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