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 U.S.A. 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 (Parma1942), 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 Bejart.
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 in 1952 to The Orchestra Rehearsal in 1979. Other directors
include Renato Castellani, Luchino Visconti, Franco Zeffirelli,
Mario Monicelli, Francis Ford Coppola (Oscar for best original movie
score), King Vidor, René Clément, Edward Dmytrik 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.(See
here)
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