ROTA Life&times

1930

LIFE: On the advice of conductor

Arturo Toscanini, Rota heads to the US where, at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, he studies conducting with Fritz Reiner and composing with Rosario Scalero.

TIMES: As work begins on the Empire State Building in New York, the nearby Chrysler Building is completed, making it the first ever man-made structure taller than 1,000 feet (305m).

1968

LIFE:HIS score for Franco Zeffirelli’s film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, starring Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey in the title roles, enjoys enormous popularity. TIMES: Reflecting similar protests elsewhere in Europe, the ‘Sessantotto’ movement sees student protesters occupy universities across Italy in a challenge to traditional society.

1911

LIFE: Born in Milan on 3 December, Giovanni Rota Rinaldi displays musical talent from a young age. He composes his first oratorio, L’infanzia di San Giovanni Battista, at 11 years old.

TIMES: On the 50th anniversary of Italy’s unification, over a million people gather in Rome for the unveiling of the 75m high Victor Emmanuel II National Monument.

1952

LIFE: While employed as the director of the Liceo Musicale in Bari, he composes The White Sheik, the first of his many film scores with director Federico Fellini. TIMES: At the summer Olympic Games in Helsinki, gymnast Miranda Cicognani becomes the first woman to carry the Italian flag at the opening ceremony. She also competes in 1956 and ’60.

1972

LIFE: Partly inspired by Sibelius’s First Symphony, he composes the score for Francis Ford Coppola’s

The Godfather. Three years later, his music for the sequel wins an Oscar. TIMES: Giulio Andreotti is elected prime minister of Italy, the first of three terms in office. Twenty years later, he is put on trial for associating with the Mafia, but acquitted.

1979

LIFE: He dies in Rome, aged 67, of coronary thrombosis. His death comes two days before the premiere of Jan Troell’s The Hurricane, featuring his last ever filmscore.

TIMES: Pope John Paul II’S visit to Poland is the first ever made by a Pope to a Communist country. Its political impact later leads to it being dubbed ‘the nine days that changed the world’.