The film covers a hundred years in the lives of the Ricordi family, the Milan publishing house of the title, and the various composers and other historic personalities, whose careers intersected with the growth of the Ricordi house. It beautifully draws the parallel between the great music of the composers, the historic and social upheavals of their times, as well as the "smaller stories" of the successive generations of Ricordi.
Roland Alexandre
as Gioacchino Rossini
Elisa Cegani
as Giuseppina Strepponi
Danièle Delorme
as Maria
Gabriele Ferzetti
as Giacomo Puccini
Renzo Giovampietro
as Tito Ricordi
Fosco Giachetti
as Giuseppe Verdi
Nadia Gray
as Giulia Grisi
Roldano Lupi
as Domenico Barbaja
Paolo Stoppa
as Giovanni Ricordi
Vira Silenti
as Marietta Ricordi
Myriam Bru
as Luisa Lewis
Marcello Mastroianni
as Gaetano Donizetti
