Nino Rota
He seemed a man out of this world. His ability to detach himself and live as if outside the framework of time, life, realities of reality caused genuine surprise of those around him. Incredibly modest, absolutely indifferent to material goods, fame and struggle for a place in the sun, he earned himself the “godfather of film music,” without worrying about it. He simply composed music, which for the first time in the history of world cinema was destined to step off the movie screen into an independent life and eventually form his own wonderful world - the world of Nino Rota.
short biography
The future king of film music was born in 1911 in Milan. He was named Giovanni Roth Rinaldi - in honor of his grandfather Giovanni Rinaldi, who was a professional musician and composer. Nino's mother, Ernest Rinaldi, was also a pianist, so in fact Nino Rota became a third generation musician of her family. Could this be the reason for his phenomenal musical intuition, which allowed each time to accurately convey in music shades of feelings, emotions, moods?
Mother became the first musical teacher of Nino. Under her leadership, he mastered the basics of the piano game, and in 8 years already tried to compose. It is not surprising that already at the age of 11 the young composer became famous as the author of the oratorio "The Childhood of St. John the Baptist". The orator was staged in Paris and Milan, they talked about a talented child, and he even had to be given an interview, which can be used to judge the boy’s extraordinary personality.
At 12, Nino Rota became a student at the Roman Conservatory. When he turned 15, he composed his debut opera “The King of the Swinopah”, based on the opera libretto of Andersen’s fairy tale, and two years later he graduated from the Conservatory with a red diploma.
In 1930, Roth, at the suggestion of conductor Arturo Toscanini, went to America, where he entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he took lessons in composition and orchestration. After returning home, Nino Roth became absorbed in the study of literature, without ceasing to compose music. Opera and ballet scores, symphonic works came out from under his inspired pen with equal ease.
In 1939, Nino Roth was invited to conduct classes at the Conservatory of Nicolo Paccini in Bari, and from that moment the conservatory entered his fate forever. In 1950 he became its director and worked on this post until the end of his days. Most of his famous melodies, which later captured more than one generation of movie goers, were born on the train that traveled between Rome and Bari. As soon as he got into the carriage, he completely abandoned the hustle and bustle of the road surrounding him, plunging into work.
His love affair with cinema began in 1933 with the film "Treno Popolare" by Rafaello Matarazzo, to which he wrote music. True, the fact that it will be a novel, and the film Matarazzo is only its prologue, Nino Rota had the least guess. Being a serious composer, a professional who received a fundamental musical education, he took up his first musical film work out of curiosity and a desire to try his hand in a new genre for himself.
His initial conviction that music should not be content with the role of a static illustration of the screen plot, but can act as an element of drama, to be the breath and pulse of the picture grew and strengthened with each subsequent film. The best confirmation that he is on the right path was the fame and recognition that came to the composer after the films "White Sheikh", "Road", "Romeo and Juliet", "Rocco and his brothers", "Sweet Life", "Godfather" father". The most eminent directors of the 1950s – 70s of the last century — Luchino Visconti, Franco Rossi, Damiano Damiani, Franco Zeffirelli, Francis Ford Coppola — honored the honor of cooperating with Nino Roth. But to the full, his extraordinary talent and tremendous creative intuition were revealed in a creative tandem with Federico Fellini. This meeting was a gift of fate for both. The director and composer seemed to breathe in unison. It was enough a hint that threw one, so that the other picked up and developed the theme to the very depths of its sound.
Their co-creation and friendship continued for a quarter of a century and ended only with the death of the composer. Their last collaboration was the film "Orchestra Rehearsal". Rota did not have time to finish it. In 1979, he died suddenly in Rome from heart failure.
Interesting Facts
- In the creative baggage Nino Rota - the authorship of music to 150 films.
- The name of the composer is the Conservatory in the town of Monopoli - "Conservatorio Nino Rota".
- In 1991, a grand concert was organized in Moscow in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Company, where his music was performed by the orchestral groups of the Bolshoi Theater and the State Radio and Television.
- In 2006, the Theater of the Moon in Moscow showed the premiere of "Notes of Nino Rota". She represented the thoughts of an older man. In the memoirs of the main character, episodes are slipping, causing associations with Fellini’s paintings.
- In 1972, the album, which included music from the "Godfather", became the best-selling and kept this bar for six months.
- Nino Roth was called the composer Fellini, and rightly so: from 23 films created by the master of Italian cinema, the music of Nino Rota sounds at 17.
- At the funeral of Fellini, along with ritual masses, one could hear the music of Nino Rota.
- The company had friendly relations with Igor Stravinsky.
- Animator Matt Groening, wanting to convey to the composer Danny Elfman his vision of musical accompaniment to the famous animated series "The Simpsons", gave him to listen to the tape, among other tunes was recording the soundtrack of the movie "Juliet and Spirits".
- Nino Rota could speak Russian a little. To his nephew Marcello Rote, who became the conductor, he said: "Marcello, the world's best musicians and orchestras are Soviet, and if you are lucky enough to play with them, it would be nice to know Russian."
- In the world of figure skating, the king of film music is considered one of the composers whose music helps to win the Olympic Games. At the last five White Olympiads, his music was played in five arbitrary programs of athletes who eventually climbed onto a pedestal. The most popular with skaters soundtracks to "Romeo and Juliet" and "The Godfather."
- In the picture of his friend Fellini "Eight and a half" Nino Rota appears not only as the author of music, but the only time he appears in the frame in a cameo role.
- The theme of love from The Godfather is popular all over the world. The music is written in various languages - Chinese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Farsi and others.
Top soundtracks
The theme of love for the film "The Godfather". The film still ranks second in the list of the best films of American cinema, according to the statement of the American Film Institute, and this is to a large extent the merit of Nino Rota, who wrote to him an exceptional effect on the human soul music. By the words to the song" Speak softly love ", sounded in the film, is Larry Kusik. By the way, he also wrote the lyrics of the song, which can be heard in the movie" Romeo and Juliet. "
The dramaturgy of the cartoon film “Contact”, which appeared on the Soviet screen in 1978, was built on the music from The Godfather.
"The Godfather" (listen)
The theme of love from the movie "Romeo and Juliet". The composer has built it in such a way that the musical intonations of the Renaissance are clearly felt in it. In the version of the film, designed for the Italian audience, the song that sounds during the first meeting of the characters, performs Bruno Filippini. In the more common English version, we hear the voice of Glen Weston.
"Romeo and Juliet" (listen)
Stages of creativity: from plagiarism to masterpiece
For most Nino Roth is a composer, whose name is inseparable from the cinema. But the reputation of the king of film music that had developed during the life of the Company, in fact, deeply stung the maestro, and not without reason. No, he did not change his convictions and, unlike many of his colleagues and critics, he never considered cinema music to be an unserious genre. But, apart from movie soundtracks, the Italian composer wrote 10 operas, three ballets, and several symphonies. In 1942, with great success in Parma, the premiere of his three-act opera "Ariodante" was held. In 1945, Roth turned to the famous comedy "The Straw Cap" by E. Labisch and created the opera "Il capello di paglia di Firenze". However, her score gathered dust in the table for a dozen years, until in 1955 Rota's boyfriend, appointed director of the theater and aware of the existence of the opera, did not persevere, literally forcing the dispersed composer to find the manuscript and reanimate it. The performance was expected to be an unprecedented success, and now "Il capello di paglia di Firenze" is the most popular opera written by the composer.
However, the controversy surrounding his opera scores has not abated until now. A number of researchers and critics blame Nino Roth in imitation of famous compatriots - Puccini, Rossini, Donizetti, and some even in the plagiarism of specific passages. The influence of the famous opera composers on the work of the Company, indeed, has a place to be, but it is due to his personal musical preferences, sincere admiration for the music of his great predecessors. Nino Rote has been faced with accusations of plagiarism many times during his life. What is the story of the failed "Oscar", for which he was first nominated for music to the picture of Coppola "The Godfather", but at the last moment was removed from the list of nominees - precisely because of plagiarism. At that time, meticulous film critics and critics reproached Roth that he borrowed music from ... himself, and this tune had already sounded earlier in the movie "Fortunella" (1958)
But time put everything in its place. Nino Rote, however, was awarded the honored Oscar - for the music to the second part of The Godfather. And interest in his operatic legacy is gradually being revived today. In the 2000s, several productions of Rota's opera Aladdin's Magic Lamp, written by him back in 1968, were performed at once in Europe. It was successfully held in Vienna, Luxembourg, Lausanne, and in 2015 its premiere took place on the stage of the Moscow Academic Musical Theater. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko.
It is impossible to understand the secret of Nino Rota’s music, which touches the innermost strings of the soul, as it is impossible to explain the effect of alchemy. "The Wizard of Bari", which during his lifetime friends and acquaintances called the Angel for his meek disposition and a serene smile that never left his face, actually had a rare insight in everything related to the depths of human nature, therefore his music from the first bars takes and leads him into the world where you can find answers to any questions, if you listen to the voice of the heart.
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