Rota (real name, Rinaldi), Nino

Rota (real name, Rinaldi), Nino , brilliant Italian composer; b. Milan, Dec. 3, 1911; d. Rome, April 10, 1979. He was a precocious musician. At the age of 11 he wrote an oratorio that had a public performance, and at 13 he composed a lyric comedy in 3 acts, Il Principe porcaro, after Hans Christian Andersen. He entered the Milan Cons. in 1923, and took courses with Delachi, Orefici, and Bas. After private studies with Pizzetti (1925–26), he studied composition with Casella at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, graduating in 1930, and then pursued training at the Curtis Inst. of Music in Philadelphia, studying composition with Scalero and conducting with Reiner (1931–32). Returning to Italy, he entered the Univ. of Milan to study literature, gaining a degree in 1937. He taught at the Taranto music school (1937–38), and then was a teacher (from 1939) and director (1950–78) at the Bari Liceo Musicale. His musical style demonstrates a great facility, and even felicity, with occasional daring excursions into the forbidding territory of dodecaphony. However, his most durable compositions are related to his music for the cinema; he composed the sound tracks of a great number of films of the Italian director Federico Fellini covering the period from 1950 to 1979.

Works

DRAMATIC: Opera : Il Principe porcaro (1925); Ariodante (Parma, Nov. 5, 1942); Torquemada (1943; rev. version, Naples, Jan. 24, 1976); 1 2 timidi, radio opera (Italian Radio, 1950; stage version, London, March 17, 1952); Il cappello di paglia di Firenzi (1946; Palermo, April 2, 1955); La scuola di guida (Spoleto, 1959); Lo scoiattolo in gamba (Venice, Sept. 16, 1959); La notte di un nevrastenico, opera buffa (concert version, Turin, July 9, 1959; stage version, Milan, Feb. 8, 1960); Aladino e la lampada magica (Naples, Jan. 14, 1968); La visita meravigliosa, after H.G. Wells (Palermo, Feb. 6, 1970); Napoli milionaria (Spoleto, June 22, 1977). ballet: La rappresentazione di Adamo ed Eva (Perugia, Oct. 5, 1957); La strada (after the 1954 Fellini film of the same name; Milan, 1965; rev. 1978); La Molière imaginaire (Paris, 1976). film: Scores for films by Fellini, including Lo sceicco bianco (The White Sheik; 1950); I vitelloni (1953); La strada (1954); Il bidone (1955); Notti di Cabiria (1957); La dolce vita (1959); part of Boccaccio 70 (1962); Otto de mezza (8 1/2; 1963); Giulietta degli spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits; 1965); Satyricon (1969); The Clowns (1971); Fellini Roma (1972); Amarcord (1974); Casanova (1977); Orchestra Rehearsal (1979). His scores for other directors include Cass’s The Glass Mountain (1950); De Filippo’s Napoli milionaria (1950); Vidor’s War and Peace (1956); Visconti’s Le notti bianche (1957), Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960), and Il gattopardo (The Leopard; 1963); Zeffirelli’s The Taming of the Shrew (1966) and Romeo e Giulietta (1968); Bondarchuk’s Waterloo (1969); Coppola’s The Godfather I (1972) and II (1974); Harvey’s The Abdication (1974); Wertmuller’s Love and Anarchy (1974); Guillermin’s Death on the Nile (1978); Monicelli’s Caro Michele (1978); and Troell’s Hurricane (1979). ORCH.: Balli (1932); Serenata (1932); 3 syms. (1936–39; 1937–41, rev. 1975; 1957); Sinfonia sopra una canzone d’amore (1947–72); Harp Concerto (1948); Variazioni sopra un tema gioviale (1954); Concerto festivo (1958); 2 piano concertos (1960; Piccolo mondo antico, 1979); Concerto soirée for Piano and Orch.; Fantasia sopra 12-note del “Don Giovanni” di Mozart for Piano and Orch. (1961); Concerto for Strings (1964); Trombone Concerto (1968); Divertimento concertante for Double Bass and Orch. (1968–69); 2 cello concertos (1972, 1973); Costei del Monte for Horn and Orch. (1975–76); Bassoon Concerto (1974–77); The Godfather Suite (from the films; Buffalo, Nov. 5, 1976). CHAMBER: Invenzioni for String Quartet (1933); Viola Sonata (1934); Canzona for 11 Instruments (1935); Quintet for Flute, Oboe, Viola, Cello, and Harp (1935); Violin Sonata (1937); Sonata for Flute and Harp (1937); String Quartet (1948–54); Trio for Flute, Violin, and Piano (1958); Nonet (1958); Elegy for Oboe and Piano (1959); Sonata for Organ and Brass (1968); Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano (1973). KEYBOARD : Piano: Variazioni e fuga sul nome B-A-C-H (1950); 15 Preludes (1964). Organ: Sonata (1965). VOCAL : Oratorios: L’infanzia di S. Giovanni Battista (1923); Mysterium Catholicum (1962); La vita di Maria (1970); Roma capomunni (1972); Rabelaisiana (1978). other: 3 masses (1960–62); songs.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire