Various Artists: Fellini Masterpieces, 3CD Boxset

Biographer Richard Dyer asserted that Nino Rota's work with Fellini was among the most celebrated of all director-composer collaborations; spoken of alongside Eisenstein and Prokofiev, Hitchcock and Herrmann, Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone, Spielberg and Williams.

Nino Rota's Fellini scores define his style, conjuring, from the very first note of each film, the very image of the director and the bizarre and fantastic characters of his world.

After a post-war apprenticeship wring screenplays for Roberto Rossellini, Fellini graduated to direction, at first collaborating with Alberto Lattuada on Variety Lights before embarking on The White Sheik, his first solo production. I Vitelloni followed, a witty portrayal of the life of a group of individuals in a small provincial town on the Romagna coast; a scene providing echoes of Fellini's own background. Now his domestic breakthrough came with La Strada, which received an enthusiastic reception, both critical and commercial, with memorable performances from the leading players, Anthony Quinn and Giulietta Masina.

In Il Bidone, Fellini's swindlers are the vitelloni of petty crime, overgrown adolescents who can only dream of bringing off the really big "job". Nights of Cabiria followed, the travails of a kind of fairy-tale prostitute. More triumph for Giulietta Masina; a hit that completed Fellini's first creative phase.

In 1960, Fellini achieved international fame with the extraordinary La Dolce Vita, which struck the heart of the establishment. The film's evocation of 1950s Italian decadence offending church and state who were shocked by the vitality and intensity of Fellini's vision. The film made a star of Anita Ekberg and coined the term "paparazzo" (a certain type of bothersome photographer) that is still in use today. A "powerfully creative meditation on the inability to create", Otto E Mezzo finds cinema being used to interpret cinema, as a famous film director (a perfectly nuanced performance by Marcello Mastroianni) fights to make sense of the delirium of actors, producers, intellectuals, technicians that whirl around him. Eight and a Half is the modernist masterpiece of one of the great innovators of film style. It is regarded by many to be Fellini's greatest achievement.

This presentation comprises the complete original film soundtracks of La Strada, Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita and Otto E Mezzo, a suite of music from I Vitelloni and the main themes from Variety Lights, The White Sheik and Il Bidone, complemented by diegetic and non-diegetic selections from I Vitelloni, La Dolce Vita, Otto E Mezzo, the hallucinogenic Toby Dammit, Amarcord, And The Ship Sails On and Intervisa; the music of Ottorino Respighi that inspired Nino Rota's famous title music for La Dolce Vita and the Baroque work by Arcangelo Corelli that Fellini had played on set during the filming of La Strada to inspire cast and crew.

TRACK LIST

DISC ONE

LUCI DEL VARIETÀ (VARIETY LIGHTS) (1950)

1. LUCI DEL VARIETÀ (FELICE LATTUADA)

LO SCEICCO BIANCO (THE WHITE SHEIK) (1952)

2. LO SCEICCO BIANCO (NINO ROTA)

I VITELLONI (THE OVERGROWN ADOLESCENTS) (1953)

4. I VITELLONI - SUITE (NINO ROTA)


5. FRANZ SCHUBERT AVE MARIA (FRANCO CORELLI)

LA STRADA (1954) (NINO ROTA)

5. TEMA DELLA STRADA


6. "MI HA ANCHE DATO 10.000 LIRE..."


7. "E ARRIVATO ZAMPANÒ!"


8. GELSOMINA


9. LA TRATTORIA


10. SOLITUDINE DI GELSOMINA


11. IL PRANZO DI NOZZE


12. IL BAMBINO MALATO


13. ZAMPANÒ E LA VEDOVA


14. "IO ME NE VADO!"


15. I TRE SUONATORI - LA PROCESSIONE


16. IL MATTO SUL FILO


17. IL CIRCO GIRAFFA


18. GELSOMINA E IL MATTO


19. ADDIO DEL MATTO


20. IL VIAGGIO CONTINUA


21. PARTENZA DAL CONVENTO


22. ZAMPANÒ ABBANDONA GELSOMINA


23. ZAMPANÒ SULLA SPIAGGIA - FINALE

24. ARCANGELO CORELLI SONATA OP.5, NO.12 "LA FOLIA" (ARTHUR GRUMIAUX)
    (THEME ON SET)

IL BIDONE (THE SWINDLERS) (1955)

25. IL BIDONE (NINO ROTA)

LE NOTTI DI CABIRIA (THE NIGHTS OF CABIRIA) (1957) (NINO ROTA)

26. LE NOTTI DI CABIRIA


27. ASPETTANDO GIORGIO


28. DONNE DI VITA (MAMBO DI CABIRIA)


29. VIA VERNETO - IL DIVO


30. CABIRIA E IL DIVO (MAMBO DI CABIRIA)


31. "E SE ANCHE LO RACCONTO CHI CI CREDE?"


32. SPIANDO DAL BAGNO


33. IL PELLEGRINAGGIO

DISC TWO

LE NOTTI DI CABIRIA (CONTINUES)

1. PIC-NIC AL DIVINO AMORE


2. L'ILLUSIONISTA


3. CABIRIA E IL RAGIONIERE - FRÀ GIOVANNI - SULLA STRADA


4. "FRA 15 GIORNI CI SPOSIAMO..."


5. IL TRASLOCO


6. "LLA RÌ LLI RÀ" - LA TRATTORIA


7. MA LA VITA CONTINUA - FINALE

LA DOLCE VITA (1960) (NINO ROTA)

8. TITOLI DI TESTA CANZONETTA - NOTTURNO - CADILLAC


9. LA DOLCE VITA ARIVEDERCI ROMA - CARCALLA'S / LA BERSAGLIERA


10. LA DOLCE VITA IN VIA VENETO


11. PATRICIA CANEONETTA - ENTRADA DEI GLADIATORI - PARLAMI DI ME (VALZER)


12. LOLA (YES SIR, THAT'S MY BABY) PARLAMI DI ME (VALZER) - STORMY WEATHER

13. VIA VENETO E I NOBILI


14. BLUES LA DOLCE VITA DEI NOBILI


15. NOTTURNO O MATTUTINO


16. LA DOLCE VITA LA BELLA MALINCONICA


17. LA DOLCE VITA NELLA VILLA DI FREGENE CAN CAN - JINGLE BELLS - BLUES - LA DOLCE VITA - WHY WAIT


18. LA DOLCE VITA FINALE

19. JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH TOCCATA & FUGUE IN D MINOR, BWV 565 (HELMUT WALCHA)

20. JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH TOCCATA & FUGUE IN D MINOR, BWV 565 (HELMUT WALCHA)

21. OTTORINO RESPIGHI

 PINES OF ROME: PINES NEAR A CATACOMB (FRITZ REINER / CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA) (INSPIRATION  TO ROTA FOR LA DOLCE VITA: TITOLI DI TESTA)

DISC THREE

OTTO E MEZZO (8½) (1962) (NINO ROTA)

1. LA PASSERELLA DI OTTO E MEZZO


2. CIMITERO - GIGOLETTES "LA DANZA DELLE LIBELLULE" - CADILLAC - CARLOTTA'S GALLOP


3. E POI (VALZER)


4. L`ILLUSIONISTA


5. CONCERTINO ALLE TERME OVERTURE FROM THE BARBER OF SEVILLE / DANCE OF THE MIRLITONS (DANCE OF THE REED FLUTES)


6. NELL "UFFICIO DI PRODUZIONE DI OTTO E MEZZO"


7. RICORDO D`INFANZIA - DISCESA AI FANGHI


8. FIESTA RHUMBA (SARAGHINA'S DANCE)


9. GUIDO E LUISA - NOSTALGICO SWING


10. CARLOTTA`S GALLOP


11. L`HAREM


12. RIVOLTA NELL`HAREM LA CAVALCATA DELLE WALKIRIE - LA BALLERINA PENSIONATA (CA C'EST PARIS) - LA CONFERENZA STAMPA DEL REGISTA


13. LA PASSERELLA D`ADDIO

14. FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN NOCTURNE OP. 9, NO. 2 IN E FLAT MAJOR (ARTHUR RUBINSTEIN)

SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (SEGMENT "TOBY DAMMIT") (1968)

15. RAY CHARLES RUBY (IT'S YOU)

AMARCORD (1973)

16. ANDRÉ PREVIN STORMY WEATHER

AND THE SHIP SAILS ON ... (1983)

17. GIUSEPPE VERDI LA DONNA È MOBILE FROM RIGOLETTO (GIUSEPPE DI STEFANO)


18. GIUSEPPE VERDI OH PATRIA MIA FROM AIDA (ZINKA MILANOV)


19. CLAUDE DEBUSSY CLAIRE DE LUNE (RUDOLF FIRKUSNY)


20. FRANZ SCHUBERT MOMENTS MUSICAUX NO. 3 IN F MINOR, D 780 (EDWIN FISCHER)

INTERVISTA (1987)

21. ALBERT KETELBEY IN A PERSIAN MARKET (ROBERT SHARPLES / NEW SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA)