Big Ennio is watching you!
Ennio Morricone mural dedicated in Rome yesterday on what would have been the composer’s 94th birthday.
Tag: Rome
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Morricone Tributes Rome Renames Auditorium
What was initially planned to mark the 50th anniversary of the release of a film now inadvertently serves as a memorial. Within days of the passing of Ennio Morricone, La-La Land Records has reissued his score to “Two Mules for Sister Sara.”
It promises to be an especially popular release, since, while not an actual “spaghetti western,” the film shares many of the same trappings with the three Sergio Leone-directed features that made Clint Eastwood an international superstar, and Morricone’s music is very much of a piece. If you ever wondered what a romantic comedy featuring The Man With No Name would be like, this is it. The 2-CD set includes the original soundtrack album and lots of previously unreleased material, including every note of music heard in the film. This expanded release is limited to 3000 copies.
In other news, it has been announced that the city of Rome will rename the Auditorium Parco della Musica (Music Park Auditorium) in honor of the composer. On July 17, Rome’s city council voted unanimously in favor of the proposal. A selection from Morricone’s score to “Once Upon a Time in America” was performed for the occasion by members of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Orchestra of the National Academy of Saint Cecilia), conducted by the composer’s son, Andrea. The auditorium serves as home base for the group. Morricone has led the orchestra there many times.
“We want to remember a genius who gave so much to Rome and Italy, linking his name to an international symbol of culture and art,” tweeted the city’s mayor, Virginia Raggi.
The multifunctional arts complex, designed by Renzo Piano (and yes, that is his real name), was inaugurated in 2002. The auditorium’s halls are dedicated to composer Goffredo Petrassi (who was Morricone’s teacher), conductor Giuseppe Sinopoli, and to Cecilia herself, the patron saint of music.
Ennio Morricone died on July 6 at the age of 91.
Morricone celebrates his 90th birthday with the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. The music is from “The Mission.”
Andrea conducts his father’s Concerto for Orchestra:
Vintage Morricone: “Two Mules for Sister Sara”
La-La Land Records:
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Cinecittà World Rome: Italy’s New Movie Theme Park
At last, somewhere I can put my eye-squinting and Toscano-chomping skills to good use.
Cinecittà Studios has opened Italy’s largest amusement park in Rome. In addition to two roller coasters, a flight simulator, an immersive tunnel, a water attraction, four theaters and theme restaurants, the park is home to attractions inspired by classic films.
Visitors enter the park through the jaws of the Temple of Moloch from the silent classic “Cabiria,” the film that introduced the world to the enduring strongman Maciste. The Maciste craze reached its peak in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, prior to the rise of the spaghetti western, the character appearing on American screens in the guise of Hercules, Samson, Atlas or whatever other mythological, Biblical or historical strongman you can think of. “Cabiria” was shot in Turin in 1914.
The studios, cofounded by Mussolini in 1937, became a creative hotbed for the Italian neorealist movement and directors such as Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica. Cinecittà also supplied lots and soundstages for American productions from “Ben-Hur” and “Cleopatra” to “The Gangs of New York,” “The Passion of the Christ” and “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.”
The park, which opened in July, was designed by three-time Academy Award-winner Dante Ferretti, with music supplied from the film scores of Ennio Morricone.
Of particular interest is Ennio’s Creek, built on a spaghetti western motif, where Morricone’s music evokes the dusty, sundrenched terrain so memorably occupied by Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef. The attraction was introduced earlier this month.
Sounds an awful lot like “Westworld,” without the robots.
You can read more about it here, though you may have to hit the translate button:
http://www.cinecittaworld.it/set/ennios-creek-citta-di-frontiera/
In inglese:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cinecitta-world-theme-park-opens-721738
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