THE ITALIAN PASSION FOR LIFE (1999) $3.49 VHS NEW! 90 M

Opera singers Luciano Pavarotti, Anthony Kearns ("The Irish Tenors") and Robert Merrill; crooners Vic Damone, Jerry Vale and Jimmy Roselli; singer Frankie Valli; actors Dennis Farina and Richard Libertini; New York Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde; television personality Regis Philbin; fashion designer Adrienne Vittadini, business and community leaders, artists and others explore the extraordinary impact of Italian culture - and reveal that you don't have to be Italian to have the Italian passion for life. Actor Stanley Tucci narrates.

THE ITALIAN PASSION FOR LIFE pays tribute to the men and women who, whether in Italy or the United States, have that special Italian flair to reproduce the magnificence of Italy in everything they create. The program explores why so many, like singer Frankie Valli, "couldn't imagine the world without Italians."

For crooner Vic Damone, THE ITALIAN PASSION FOR LIFE is "the appreciation of beauty" that reveals itself in the work of a master cabinet maker or an opera maestro; in the ability to create flawless marble statues or magnificent murals on the Sistine Chapel - or in the true alchemy that makes a masterpiece from a single pot and a wooden spoon or turns an empty lot of land into a flourishing garden. Fashion designer Adrienne Vittadini - Italian by marriage but, her family accuses, more Italian than her native Hungarian - proposes that "living for centuries in [Italy's] beautiful surroundings" has developed this Italian asthetic sense.

Many in the program describe THE ITALIAN PASSION FOR LIFE as a genetic quality, passed down from generation to generation. Second generation tenor Luciano Pavarotti explains the Italian passion as a way of knowing how "to take from the world the best," noting "you are born like that." New York Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde cites his stone mason father as the source of his passionate work ethic. And television talk show personality Regis Philbin stakes a claim for his maternal DNA when he says "well, I am half Italian, and that half has a great passion for life."

THE ITALIAN PASSION FOR LIFE, whatever the source, is as much about sharing as creating, and has produced an incredible legacy. The program examines the cultural contributions of Italian theater, folk music, opera and popular music, and recognizes the impact of the late bandleader Louis Prima, singer Lou Monte, the beloved Italian-American soprano Rosa Ponselle and singer Dean Martin, who, to actor Dennis Farina and many others of his generation, "was everything."

THE ITALIAN PASSION FOR LIFE continues WLIW New York's ongoing commitment to the Italian American community. Original WLIW New York productions include THE ITALIAN AMERICANS, the Emmy Award-winning THE ITALIAN AMERICANS II: A Beautiful Song, and the aerial spectacular VISIONS OF ITALY: Northern Style. This program is funded in part by grants from Bertolli USA, Inc. and Sorrento Cheese Company, Inc."

BOX ART DIFFERS FROM PICTURE SHOWN