'Romeo and Juliet' theme by Nino Rota

Nino Rota - Romeo And Juliet (1968) Theme

oldmoviemusic

One of the most classic and memorable romantic themes of any film, Franco Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet score, composed by Nino Rota, reflects the tragic passion of the famous story it portrays.

When youths Romeo Montigue and Juliet Capulet first meet it is a bond that cannot be broken, love at first sight. However, with the blood feud between their families still as strong as ever, it is teh most famous romance of all time destined for tragic doom.

Starring: Olivia Hussey, Leonard Whiting
Directed by: Franco Zefferelli
Composer: Nino Rota

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I haven't seen where the 1968 British-Italian film 'Romeo and Juliet' has been aired on TV for many years. It was a very popular movie and was aired often throughout the 70s and 80s. Especially memorable was Argentine-American actress Olivia Hussey who played Juliet. Milanese born Nino Rota composed the music and Mantuan born Danilo Donati won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

Nino Rota

Giovanni "Nino" Rota (3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti. He also composed the music for two of Franco Zeffirelli's Shakespeare films, and for the first two films of Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy, receiving the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Godfather Part II (1974).

During his long career Rota was an extraordinarily prolific composer, especially of music for the cinema. He wrote more than 150 scores for Italian and international productions from the 1930s until his death in 1979—an average of three scores each year over a 46-year period, and in his most productive period from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s he wrote as many as ten scores every year, and sometimes more, with a remarkable thirteen film scores to his credit in 1954.

Alongside this great body of film work, he composed ten operas, five ballets and dozens of other orchestral, choral and chamber works, the best known being his string concerto. He also composed the music for many theatre productions by Visconti, Zeffirelli and Eduardo De Filippo as well as maintaining a long teaching career at the Liceo Musicale in Bari, Italy, where he was the director for almost 30 years.




Romeo and Juliet (1968 film)

Romeo and Juliet is a 1968 British-Italian romance film based on the tragic play of the same name (1591–1595) by William Shakespeare.

The film was directed and co-written by Franco Zeffirelli, and stars Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey. It won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography (Pasqualino De Santis) and Best Costume Design (Danilo Donati); it was also nominated for Best Director and Best Picture, making it the last Shakespearean film to be nominated for Best Picture to date. Sir Laurence Olivier spoke the film's prologue and epilogue and reportedly dubbed the voice of the Italian actor playing Lord Montague, but was not credited in the film.

Being the most financially successful film adaptation of a Shakespeare play at the time of its release, it was popular among teenagers partly because it was the first film to use actors who were close to the age of the characters from the original play. Several critics also welcomed the film enthusiastically.

Danilo Donati

Danilo Donati (April 6, 1926 - December 1, 2001) was an Italian costume designer and production designer. He won the Academy Award for Costume Design twice: the first time for his work in Romeo and Juliet (1968), the second time for his work in Fellini's Casanova (1976). In addition, he received numerous David di Donatello and Nastro d'Argento awards for his costume and production designs in various films.

Among the film directors with whom Donati had worked were Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini.







A time for us Romeo and Juliet 1968

stumblingChaos







Nino Rota - Music for the films of Federico Fellini

Bazarov

Nino Rota (December 3, 1911 - April 10, 1979) was an Italian composer. He is particularly remembered for his work on film scores, especially The Godfather series and a number of films by Federico Fellini.

Rota was born into a musical family in Milan, and studied at the conservatory there under Ildebrando Pizzetti. Later, the conductor Arturo Toscanini encouraged him to go to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to study. This he did, where he worked under Fritz Reiner, amongst others. He later returned to Milan, where he wrote a thesis on the renaissance composer Gioseffo Zarlino.

Rota at age 12

Rota wrote his first film score in 1944 for Zaza, a film directed by Renato Castellani. He later met the director Federico Fellini while the latter was working on his first film, Lo Sceicco Bianco. The two collaborated on many occasions, with Rota’s score for 8 1/2 often cited as one of the main factors which makes the film more cohesive.

His score for Fellini’s Juliet of the Spirits (1965) included a collaboration with Eugene Walter on the song, “Go Milk the Moon” (cut from the final version of the film), and they teamed again for the song “What Is Youth,” part of Rota’s score for Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet.

All pieces performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

Track List:

1. Toby Dammit (0:00)
2. The White Sheik (3:38)
3. Juliet of the Spirits (6:26)
4. 8 1/2 (13:48)
5. I Vitelloni (19:02)
6. Il Bidone (22:05)
7. The Nights of Cabiria (26:56)
8. Boccaccio ’70 (33:06)
9. Satyricon (34:35)
10. The Clowns (37:41)
11. Roma (42:04)
12. Amarcord (45:57)
13. Casanova (51:09)
14. La Dolce Vita (54:37)
15. Prova D’Orchestra (1:01:49)
16. La Strada (1:05:53)

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