The night Ennio mesmerised Irish crowds
In 2013, composer Ennio Morricone gave a very special show in Dublin, cementing his relationship with audiences here,
It was a rainy Saturday evening in late July but the thousands who had paid very good money to attend the outdoor concert at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin weren’t complaining. The year was 2013 and Ennio Morricone was conducting a cast of 200 — evenly split between the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta and the Dublin Gospel Choir — and for 90 minutes he held the sodden masses rapt.
The Italian maestro was 84 then but he carried himself like one far younger. He cut an animated figure during the more stirring moments of the music he had fashioned so many years before. And what a show it was: a spectacular journey through many of his greatest creations and, by extension, some of the finest musical moments in the history of cinema.
His death, at 91, robs the world of one of the greatest movie composers ever — a man whose work is just as indelible as the scores of films he soundtracked.
And, that summer seven years ago, saw him conduct his music in Ireland for the first time. It was a show promoted by the late John Reynolds — who also brought Leonard Cohen to Ireland for equally memorable concerts towards the end of his life.
And for those who got to witness Morricone that July weekend, the assumption was that it would be the last time he would be on Irish soil.
Happily, there were to be other concerts here — including last year’s rapturously reviewed date at Dublin’s 3Arena. He had played the same venue a couple of years before that — and it was supposedly his last — but he seemed to derive great joy about being on the road and taking his extraordinary music around the world. Retirement just didn’t seem to interest him.
That first night in Kilmainham offered a tantalising taste of his unique gifts. The set has heavily weighted in favour of the extraordinary music he had made for cinematic luminaries such as Sergio Leone, the kingpin of the spaghetti western.
And it was the heart-swelling theme music for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly that really stood out — especially The Ecstasy of Gold, with an epic vocal performance from his compatriot Susanna Rigacci, and aided by the full force of the orchestra and choir.
Apparently, it could be heard for miles around.
There’s enormous variation to his oeuvre — and while much of his most celebrated compositions are huge orchestral numbers, some of his most beloved work is wonderfully nuanced.
The sublime Gabriel’s Oboe remains one of his greatest achievements and for generations of Irish people it will be forever associated with the long-running Aer Lingus advert from the 1980s.
It was written for The Mission, the 1986 film about a Jesuit missionary in 18th century South America. It was produced by honorary Irishman David Puttnam and featured some of the finest homegrown acting talent of the era, including Liam Neeson, Ray McAnally and Aidan Quinn.
Morricone was born in Rome in 1928 and his love of music was apparent from an early age. He cut his teeth in jazz bands in the 1940s before becoming studio manager for the old RCA Victor record label.
He migrated to soundtrack work in 1955 and, from the start, displayed the sort of prodigious work-rate that would become one of his trademarks.
The sheer volume of his output is eyeopening: he is estimated to have scored more than 400 film and TV projects and he enjoyed his most fruitful work between the mid-1960s and mid-1980s.
His music for Leone’s Once Upon A Time
in the West remains one of the best-selling film soundtracks of all time, with more than 10 million sold, and his classic work has been endlessly recycled, finding its way into countless contemporary films including Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.
He collaborated with some of Hollywood’s most celebrated directors, including Oliver Stone, Mike Nichols and Brian De Palma, and worked with performers as diverse as Paul Anka and Andrea Bocelli.
Morricone was comfortable working on bigbudget Hollywood movies and smaller, more whimsical offerings, including 1988’s Cinema Paradiso, which he composed with his son,
‘Morricone seemed to derive great joy about being on the road and taking his extraordinary music around the world’
Andrea — a much-loved art house film that captured a simple life in small-town Italy in the post-war years that Morricone would have known as a teenager.
Although he originally made his name as the go-to composer for westerns, he proved to be a perfect match for multiple film genres including romance (Malena, Love Affair), horror (Exorcist II, The Thing), sci-fi
(Mission to Mars) and gangster movies (The Untouchables, Once Upon A Time in America). Ever busy, the football lover and AS Roma fan also took on stand-alone commissions including the signature anthem for the 1978 World Cup.
He received an honourary Oscar for “his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music” in 2007 and, in 2016, he collected his first competitive Academy Award for his score to the Tarantino film, The Hateful
Eight — the oldest person at the time to win the famed gold statuette. (James Ivory was 89 when he won Best Adapted Screenplay for Call
Me By Your Name in 2018.)
It seems faintly ludicrous that the man who did more than most to demonstrate the vital role of the movie composer — and influenced so many of the giants who came after — would have to wait until the twilight of his career to receive such an accolade.
Morricone, who is survived by Maria — his wife of 63 years — wrote his own obituary, which was read out yesterday by his lawyer. “I, Ennio Morricone am dead. Thus I announce it, to all my friends who have always been close to me and also to those who are a little far
away, whom I greet with great affection.”
He said it was “impossible to name everyone” but mentions members of his family and close friends, closing with words for his wife: “I renew to you the extraordinary love that has held us together, and I am sorry to abandon you. To you the most painful farewell.”
His contribution to movies and music will continue for as long as both are cherished — and for anyone present on a wet summer’s night in Dublin seven years ago, those particular memories will last a lifetime.