Nino Rota

 

 

[1911 - 1979] Emblematic name of music in Italian cinema. His legendary collaboration with director Federico Fellini is remarkable for an entire generation of movie fans and for the European film industry in the 40s and 50s.

 

Nino Rota was born in a family of musicians and studied music since childhood revealing a precocious talent for composition. He graduated from the Conservatory of Milan and the famous Academy of Santa Cecilia, house responsible for the formation of diverse talents of music in Italian cinema. Of diverse activity Rota composed operas, ballets, chamber music. He began work for film in the mid-40s, with the natural renewal of the market in the post-war period. Some works from this period have special meaning in Rota´s career as the score for The Glass Mountain, English film of 1949, which became concert piece recorded by various orchestras. Rota composed for the neo-realist cinema in films like Vivere in Pace (1946) and Anni Difficile (1948) by Luigi Zampa and Sotto Il Sole di Roma (1948) by Renato Castellari. But the most immediate association with his name will always be made with films by Federico Fellini. The famous partnership began in Lo Bianco Sceicco (1952) and continued until 1979 with Prova d'Orchestra. For Fellini, Rota composed his most memorable tracks, including La Strada (1954), La Dolce Vita (1959), Otto e Mezzo (1963), Giulietta Degli Espiriti (1965), Satyricon (1969), Amarcord (1973) and Casanova (1976). Rota also left other great moments of film music as War and Peace (1956), Romeo and Juliet (1968), Rocco and Suoi Fratelli (1960), Il Gattopardo (1963) and The Godfather (1972).