(AGI) Rome, Aug 7 - The eve of the 72nd Venice InternationalFilm Festival will be dedicated to Orson Welles. The ClassicalOrchestra of Alessandria will perform the original unpublishedscore of "The Merchant of Venice" by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino(1909-1987), composer of film scores and writer of the music ofmany of the Orson Welles "Shakespearian" films. The score waswritten for the unfinished film, and was transcribed from theonly recorded performance. It has never been played in publicbefore. This will be followed by the world premiere of a newcopy of "The Merchant of Venice", reconstructed and restored byCinemazero and the Munich Filmmuseum. The film, previouslyconsidered lost, was shot in Eastmancolor, and is based onShakespeare's play. It has come back to life thanks to thediscovery of new material by Cinemazero (Pordenone) and thediscovery of the original screenplay by Orson Welles in the OjaKodar collection of documents in the Special Collection of thelibrary of the University of Michigan. The film was made byOrson Welles in 1969 and left unfinished. It was to have beenincluded in Orson's Bag, a world film series with Welles aslead, made for CBS. This will be followed by the screening ofthe long version of Othello, restored by the CSC, CinetecaNazionale di Rome. This is the Italian version, with dialogueby Gian Gaspare Napolitano supervised by Welles, which was tohave been presented in Venice in September 1951, but waswithdrawn by Welles at the last moment as he said it wasn'tready. A new version, shorter but in English, was presented atCannes in May 1952, and won the Grand Prix. Today that rareItalian version finally arrives at the Lido. In addition,"Shakespeare & cigars. 12 studies for Shakespearean charactersdepicted by Orson Welles" will be presented during thefestival, which runs from Sept. 2 to 12, edited by BiancaLavagnino and Sergio Toffetti. It is 12 wooden boards, actuallythe back of Orson Welles' favourite boxes of cigars, on whichhe painted a series of Shakespearean characters: Macbeth,Othello, Falstaff, and Shylock in the 1960s.. .