Nino Rota was born into a musical Milanese family, in 1911. He turned out to be a musical prodigy who wrote his first oratorio at the age of 12, performed in Milan and Paris. When he died in 1979, he left behind an enormous oeuvre of operas, ballets and especially soundtracks. His best-known film scores are perhaps those of . In the late 1940s he met the Italian master director Federico Fellini.
From that moment on his music was an important part of famous Fellini films such as La Dolce Vita and 8 ½. 1969's Fellini Satyricon is the director's grotesque take on Emperor Nero's decadent Rome. Perform a soundtrack that combines primitive rhythms with fragments of avant-garde music and more traditional lyrical passages. Just like his famous colleague , Rota uses every means to enhance an atmosphere: from electric guitar to flute and hand percussion, in addition to a traditional orchestra. With Rome, as it has been around the beginning of our era, it probably has little to do. But this intriguing music will get you there, even without Fellinis images. (MR)more
