The protagonist of the episode At the Opera is Eve (Shirley MacLaine), a woman with a fashion emergency that ensues when her rival, Madame Lisari, gets photographed in a dress that Eve believed to be a unique piece.
The perfume bottle on her dressing table is Hermès Calèche, a 1961 floral fragrance created by Guy Robert.
When Comandante Carotenuto (Vittorio De Sica) first meets Donna Sofia “‘a Smargiassa” (Sofia Loren), he comments on her perfume. “What a wonderful perfume! Notti d’oriente?”, he muses. “No, no. Lavanda Cannavale,” she replies.
There’s a contrast between the two fragrances: Notti d’oriente is a fictional perfume, a synonym for respectability, despite its exotic and seductive name; on the other hand, Lavanda Cannavale is a real perfume which stands for something common, not refined. Later in the story, Carotenuto will ask Donna Violante (Lea Padovani) the same question; it will come out that she is the one wearing Notti d’oriente.
Thanks to my friend Rocco for this id.
World Wide Aura 