Italian filmmaker Carmine Gallone was still in his "operetta" mode when he helmed 1938's Il Sogno di Butterfly (Dream of the Butterfly) Maria Cebotari plays opera diva Rosa Belloni, currently starring in a production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly. The plot thickens when Rosa's backstage life begins to mirror the travails of the character she is portraying. The climax comes when Harry Peters (Fosco Giachetti), the American father of Rosa's illegitimate child, returns after four years with his new wife in tow, leading inexorably to a doleful ending both on- and offstage. Critics complained about the substandard photography in Il Sogno di Butterfly, but this might have been due to poor laboratory work.
Maria Cebotari
as Rosi Belloni
Fosco Giachetti
as Harry Peters
Lucie Englisch
as Anna Ranieri
Paul Kemp
as Richard Hell
Germana Paolieri
as Mary Peterson
Luigi Almirante
as Riccardo Belli
Renato Cialente
as
Guglielmo Barnabò
as
Carlo Lombardi
as
Miranda Bonansea
as
Giuseppe Pierozzi
as
Paolo Stoppa
as
