As both Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first violinist Sarah Curro and scores of others would agree, the way a film’s opening can immediately transport you to another planet or era is powerful stuff. Nino Rota’s score for The Godfather is undoubtedly one of the most famous pieces in both film and pop culture history, and his work also extends to some of Italy’s biggest films, including the Scorsese favourite, The Leopard and Fellini’s 8 ½. It’s unsurprising then, that his score will act as much of a drawcard for the MSO’s latest live-scoring film event as the iconic film from which it comes from.
“It’s almost impossible to watch just one scene of The Godfather, it sucks you in until the end credits every time,” says Curro. “I thought I’d press record and watch it another time, and I sat down and thought, ‘I’ll just watch five minutes of it,’ but I couldn’t stop watching it.”
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra are considered trailblazers in bringing contemporary programming to culture vultures and fans of orchestral music alike. Many cities feature a famous orchestra, but not many are pushing for more interesting programming, or looking to find new audiences to experience a performance. For many, the MSO performing a blockbuster film score, or collaborating with Detroit techno DJs is a gateway to punters seeing an orchestra for the first time. Along with the film score performances, the MSO have recently treated techno fans to an evening with Jeff Mills and Derrick May at Sidney Myer Music Bowl. It’s clear this type of programming is important to Curro and many of her fellow players.
However, Curro sees The Godfather Live in Concert rather differently to some of the other film performances the MSO have taken on in the past. While scores from The Lord Of The Rings and Indiana Jones areriveting to watch, with brilliant scores in their own right, it’s the way Rota uses silence to such chilling and dramatic effect that sets his score apart. In other words, it’s the space between notes that gives Coppola’s actors even greater screen presence.
“There’s really not much music, which is amazing for a film score,” agrees Curro. “The way [Rota] has written the music for The Godfather is very sparse, so for us it’s going to be quite different when compared The Lord Of The Rings.”
Nino Rota was once described by Italian conductor Toscanini – one of the most acclaimed musicians of the 20th century – as ‘the Italian Mozart’. His compositional credentials are second to none. It’s just another reason why The Godfather is ripe for an MSO collaboration.
“Film composition is the same as European classical music,” Corro explains. “People think that film composers stole from the style and traditions of classical music, but the truth is all classical composers stole from each other back then. In fact, it was a flattering thing to steal from others. And it wasn’t even called stealing. It was paying homage to Beethoven or Schubert or whoever. People like John Williams and Nino Rota did the same – they learnt every style over the 300 years of the different classical periods and converted that to music that enhances a film – and that is exactly the same as opera of the 19th century. You’ve got a stage, you’ve got costumes and you’ve got a set. It’s a very old fashioned thing, the only difference now is that there’s a screen.”
BY RYAN NAJESKI
