Nino Rota(1911-1979)
- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Born in Milan in 1911 into a family of musicians, Nino Rota was first a
student of Orefice and Pizzetti. Then, still a child, he moved to Rome
where he completed his studies at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in
1929 with Alfredo Casella. In the meantime, he had become an 'enfant
prodige', famous both as a composer and as an orchestra conductor. His
first oratorio, "L'infanzia di San Giovanni Battista," was performed in
Milan and Paris as early as 1923 and his lyrical comedy, "Il Principe
Porcaro," was composed in 1926. From 1930 to 1932, Nino Rota lived in
the USA. He won a scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Philadelphia
where he attended classes in composition taught by Rosario Scalero and
classes in orchestra taught by Fritz Reiner. He returned to Italy and earned
a degree in literature from the University of Milan. In 1937, he began
a teaching career that led to the directorship of the Bari
Conservatory, a title he held from 1950 until his death in 1979. After
his "childhood" compositions, Nino Rota wrote the following operas:
Ariodante (Parma 1942), Torquemada (1943), Il cappello di paglia di
Firenze (Palermo 1955), I due timidi (RAI 1950, London 1953), La notte
di un neurastenico (Premio Italia 1959, La Scala 1960), Lo scoiattolo
in gamba (Venezia 1959), Aladino e la lampada magica (Naples 1968), La
visita meravigliosa (Palermo 1970), Napoli milionaria (Spoleto Festival
1977). He also wrote the following ballets: La rappresentazione di
Adamo ed Eva (Perugia 1957), La Strada (La Scala 1965), Aci e Galatea
(Rome 1971), Le Molière imaginaire (Paris and Brussels 1976) and Amor
di poeta (Brussels 1978) for Maurice Béjart. In addition, there are
countless works for orchestra that have been performed since before
World War II and are still performed by orchestras in every part of the
world. His work in film dates back to the early forties. His
filmography includes the names of virtually all of the noted directors
of his time. First among these is Federico Fellini. He wrote all of the movie
scores for Fellini's films from The White Sheik (1952) in 1952 to Orchestra Rehearsal (1978) in 1978.
Other directors include Renato Castellani, Luchino Visconti, Franco Zeffirelli, Mario Monicelli, Francis Ford Coppola
(Oscar for best original score for The Godfather Part II (1974)), King Vidor, René Clément, Edward Dmytryk,
and 'Eduardo de Filippo'. He also composed the music for many theatre productions by
Visconti, Zefirelli, and de Filippo. In February of 1995, the Nino Rota
Foundation was established at Fondazione Cini of Venice, Italy. Cini
specializes in the works of 20th century Italian composers and includes
the estate of Casella.
