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La Venere di Cheronea arrived yesterday within my first CD order of 2019.
The musical compositions on this Digitmovies CD (Beat Records is credited as the producer of this album within the booklet notes) are by Giovanni Fusco ... and Carlo Savina conducted the choir and orchestra.
In the middle of said booklet, there is a reproduction of this movie's poster landscaped across two pages. At the bottom of this poster, guess who is credited with the music? Michel Michelet! 
My guess at this point is that Michelet had initially been connected to this film and that Fusco's score for Venere was for the Italian language version.
Most of us who collect Digitmovies CDs are probably already aware that this label had - as one of its earliest releases - issued Piero Piccioni's music (as Il Disprezzo) for the Italian distribution of Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt, whose original score was Le Mépris written by Georges Delerue.
Perhaps Fusco's effort for Venere was only for Italian screenings?
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My guess at this point is that Michelet had initially been connected to this film and that Fusco's score for Venere was for the Italian language version.
Perhaps Fusco's effort for Venere was only for Italian screenings?
That´s what I had also in mind at first. However, after having seen the shorter French version on video in the meantime (which has only a duration of 75 minutes and is edited a bit differently than the Italian version) I have to say that this assumption is also not correct. It is indeed funny, but the French version has one and the same music as the Italian one so that there is no extra/additional music to be heard there at all. Again Michel Michelet is credited as composer in the Main Title and Carlo Savina is mentioned as orchestrator and conductor - just as in the Main Title of the Italian version. However, as director only Viktor Tourjansky is credited in the film´s Main Title - no mention of the Italian Giorgio Rivalta anymore.
Michel Michelet had been a long-time friend of director Viktor Tourjansky (they were both born in Kiev, Tourjansky in 1891, Michelet in 1894)) and had already scored some films for him during the 30s when they had both been in France. So it could be that Michelet had at first been hired by Tourjansky for LA VENERE DI CHERONEA, had no time to really score the picture or was prevented for any other reason and was then replaced by Fusco. Somethng must then have been mixed up so that Michelet got this wrong official credit.
You also have to keep in mind that the Italian version was released in Decmber 1957 whereas the French theatrical release happened more than a year later which is really strange.
After having heard the complete score on the Digitmovies CD in my view the music must have been composed by an Italian – no doubt about that as the Italian flavour is just too strong so that I don´t think this is a composition by Michelet. And some typical stylistic Fusco traits (use of the woodwinds, some dissonances) are also very recognizable. There is also one pastoral theme in the middle of the score which is very similar to one he composed a few months later for some religious scenes in the peplum AFRODITE, DEA DELL´AMORE from 1958.
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Is it possible there was collaboration between Michelet and Fusco with only former being credited?
This is very unlikely as then the copyright society SIAE in Italy woudl at least list Michelet as co-composer in their database, but this is not the case as they list only Fusco.
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Thanks for your input, Stefan.
Seems as though Michelet did not write (or record) anything for this film.
Another thought I had is perhaps Michelet had incurred and injury or illness and might have been out of commission for a stretch of time - thus delegating the scoring duties to another composer (in this case Fusco) whilst retaining credit due to contractual issues.
As for the music itself, I think there is a lot to discuss and I feel this opus should deserve a thread of its own.
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Who cares who wrote the music as long as it sounds good...
There!
Hi, captain X.
The music sounds more than good to me. 
Only listened to it twice so far, but La Venere di Cheronea is (I think) a splendid specimen of romantic Golden Age orchestral writing.
Regarding monaural recordings that don't sound that good, though, this Venere will unfortunately get passed over by folk who prefer well-recorded stereo. Such will be missing out on a fine Fusco effort.
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I'm wondering about AFRODITE, DEA DELL´AMORE now.
AFRODITE, DEA DELL´AMORE will certainly not be released as unfortunately this is not a title from the CAM, but from the Nazionalmusic catalogue. Therefore no original tapes with the music have survived.
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You also have to keep in mind that the Italian version was released in Decmber 1957 whereas the French theatrical release happened more than a year later which is really strange.
Yes, curious that.
Also, I notice that the earliest screening of the Steve Reeves Hercules was February of '58 - two months after the December '57 showing of La venere di Cheronea.
This implies that Venere was completed prior to the peplum fad which ensued after the Reeves Hercules.
I wonder if Carlo Savina had conducted the same musicians and chorus back-to-back with Fusco's Venere and then with Enzo Masetti's Le fatiche di Ercole? Both were recorded in 1957 but copyrighted 1958 according to the C.A.M. archives.
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