In any event, Visconti's love of opera was more important here than his Marxism. He directed Maria Callas five times at La Scala between 1954 and 1957, and indeed she was his first choice for Livia but her schedule had no room for a film. He directed some 25 operas in all, and in his co-writing of "Senso" you sense the larger than life emotions. the grand scale. What's surprising is that this film itself hasn't been adapted for an opera.
"Senso" has had a checkered history. Italian censors forced Visconti to reshoot the ending, saying his original version was an insult to the Italian army in showing soldiers mistreating the forlorn and pathetic heroine. Despite the alleged star power of Valli and Granger, the film was shortened for markets outside Italy, and seen in England and America in an English-language version named variously "Livia" and "The Wanton Countess," with both leads speaking their own English.