Winner of an Oscar for best soundtrack, we discover the life and career of the great Italian composer Nino Rota.
Who was Nino Rota
Nino Rota, born Giovanni Rota Rinaldi (Milan, 3 December 1911 – Rome, 10 April 1979), was a Italian composer.
Passionate about music from an early age, he studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, the same where Giovanni Allevi later studied.
He began composing at the age of eleven performing with his “The Infancy of St. John the Baptist” also in France.
He continued his studies privately in Rome with Alfredo Casella and obtained the diploma in composition at the Academy of Santa Cecilia. At the age of twenty he decides to attend some courses in the United States to perfect his musical work, before returning to Italy and graduating in Literature at the University of Milan.
The beginning of his career as a composer
At the beginning of the ’30s he begins his career in the world of films making his first arrangement for the film “Popular Train”.
At the same time he plays the role of professor of theory and solvingggio at the Conservatory of Taranto and Bari but it is certainly the one in cinema that makes him known.
In 1944 in fact he knows Federico Fellini who is making “The White Sheikh” and thus begins a collaboration that lasts for many years. It can also boast the creation of the music of two major projects by Luchino Visconti: “Rocco and his brothers” is “The Leopard”.
One of his most successful soundtracks is undoubtedly that of “The Godfather” and “The Godfather – Part II” winning the area with the latter Oscar Prize for Best Score.
Music projects outside the cinema
In addition to composing soundtracks, he continues to work for create orchestral music. The world of theater and dance in fact give thanks almost as much as the world of cinema, although this world has made it much more famous.
In fact, in the film industry he has met some great friends including the directors with whom he collaborated most often and the actors who took part in those projects.