The Last Days of Pompeii - Theatrical, Film and Television Adaptations

Theatrical, Film and Television Adaptations

• 1858 - Errico Petrella's opera Jone, with a libretto by Giovanni Peruzzini based upon the novel, premiered at La Scala on January 26. It was very successful and remained in the Italian repertoire well into the 20th century, its last known performance being in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1981.
• 1877 - an ambitious theatrical adaptation was mounted at the Queen's Theatre, Long Acre in London that featured a staged eruption of Vesuvius, an earthquake and a sybaritic Roman feast – the earth did not quake, the volcano did not work, acrobats fell onto the cast below, and the production was an expensive flop.
• 1900 - The Last Days of Pompeii (UK), directed by Walter R. Booth.
• 1908 - The Last Days of Pompeii (Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei) (Italy), directed by Arturo Ambrosio and Luigi Maggi.
• 1912 - The Last Days of Pompeii a three movement concert suite composed by John Philip Sousa.
• 1913 - The Last Days of Pompeii (Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei) (Italy), directed by Mario Caserini.
• 1913 - Jone or the Last Days of Pompeii (Jone ovvero gli ultimi giorni di Pompei) (Italy), directed by Giovanni Enrico Vidali and Ubaldo Maria Del Colle.
• 1926 - The Last Days of Pompeii (Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei) (Italy), directed by Carmine Gallone.
• 1935 - The Last Days of Pompeii, an RKO film, with Preston Foster and Basil Rathbone, which carried a disclaimer that, although the scenes of Vesuvius erupting had been inspired by the novel, the movie did not use its plot or characters.
• 1950 - The Last Days of Pompeii (Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei / Les Derniers Jours de Pompéi) (Italy/France), directed by Marcel L'Herbier and Paolo Moffa.
• 1959 - The Last Days of Pompeii (Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei) (Italy), directed by Sergio Leone.
• 1984 - The Last Days of Pompeii (Italy/UK/U.S.), a television miniseries.
• 2008 - Pompeji (Germany), musical.