Reaching Past Pasta Ads that Feature La Donna E Mobile

Every now and then, I've tried finding a TV commercial that advertised pasta and used a particularly catchy classical piece. I've long since forgotten the name of the pasta and most of the pasta words. I had never learned the name of the music until a few weeks ago. With some further effort beyond doing a playlist lookup for my local classical music radio station, I narrowed it down to "La Donna E Mobile" from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto. ("La Donna e Mobile" is a 43-sec instrumental autoplay audio that loops.)

I figured it would be easy to find the TV ad on YouTube, but it wasn't so. I expanded my searches. I've wracked my brain and looked all over the web. I posted to a forum requesting help in finding the ad. My inquiry included my feeble recall of lyrics that mention pasta shapes, such as mostaccioli, vermecilli, …. It seems the singer mentioned about 20 pasta shapes.

A couple of suggestions were close, but not correct. "The Pasta Song" has loads of pasta shapes in both lyrics and images. Not the correct song, however. Be forewarned that the images are mouth-watering and maybe hunger inducing! "Leggos ad by Grey Melbourne" starts out with a charming choreography of dancing tomatoes, and ends with their total destruction into sauce. Integration with music equipment is fascinating! Right music, incorrect lyrics.

I had an interesting journey seeking the ad. Besides encountering some nice performances, the following resources helped provide some overview of the opera plot.

• "Giuseppe Verdi - La donna è mobile from Rigoletto - Frascati Symphonic"
• "Luciano Pavarotti - La Donna È Mobile (Rigoletto)"
• "Vitas La Donna e Mobile HQ Official Version - English subtitles"
  This video's description includes Italian and English lyrics. The video fascinates me for the character who sings very high notes, starting at about 45 seconds. To me, he resembles a "younger Brent Spiner as Star Trek TNG's Commander Data".

Deeper curiosity about the plot led me to "Rigoletto Synopsis The Story of Verdi's Rigoletto", which provides info about the composer, characters, and summary about the entire play.

My curiosity about pronunciation percolated. "How to pronounce La donna è mobile" and "'La donna è mobile' Verdi (Rigoletto)" seem sensible resources.

The following links describe the popularity of La Donna e Mobile for various products—Doritos, tomato paste, Dancing with the Stars, Nestle Choco Crossies (cookies), AXE (body spray), …

• "How Rigoletto’s ‘La Donna e Mobile’ Has Dominated Pop Culture"
• "From tomato paste to Doritos: Rigoletto' aria a popular refrain"
• "The Commercial Domination of ‘La donna è mobile’"
• "What is the name of the opera song that used to be on a spaghetti commercial?"
  This forum topic looked like a promising resource for my inquiry. Alas, I think the pasta product's use of that song might go back way too far for most people to remember.

I have almost totally given up on trying to find the ad (eh, from maybe early 60s). I suppose someone's parent or older friend who worked there AND spotted this resource or my article could specify the company name. Long shot, I think.