Sem Benelli

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Italian. (September 2011) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Italian article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Italian Wikipedia article at [[:it:Sem Benelli]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|it|Sem Benelli}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Sem Benelli (August 10, 1877 – December 18, 1949) was an Italian playwright, essayist and librettist. He provided the texts for several noted Italian operas, including Italo Montemezzi's L'amore dei tre re and L'incantesimo, and Umberto Giordano's La cena delle beffe, based on Benelli's own play of the same title. He was a native of Prato. His dramatic play of La Gorgona was first staged in Trieste in 1913.^[1]

The play The Jester's Supper was a great New York theatre success in 1919 under the title The Jest, starring Lionel and John Barrymore. In Italy Paola Pezzaglia was considered the best male protagonist of La cena delle beffe, after an incident in 1913 when the leading man collapsed before playing the character of Giannetto; she took his place achieving resounding success. Ever since Pezzaglia carried on doing the same role again and again.

Benelli wrote the screenplay for the 1942 film The Jester's Supper based on his own famous play.