Tuesday, September 15, 2009

ENNIO MORRICONE - ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

Legendary Italian maestro Ennio Morricone will conduct the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in an evening of music drawn from his most famous film scores -- including "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"; "The Untouchables"; "Cinema Paradiso"; "Once Upon a Time in America"; "The Mission"; "Once Upon a Time in the West"; "A Fistful of Dollars"; "Sacco and Vanzetti"; "The Battle of Algiers"; "A Fistful of Dynamite"; and "U Turn" - at Hollywood Bowl on October 25. The evening, which also includes participation by the Angeles Chorale, is billed as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," and will be Morricone's only U.S. concert appearance of the year. Ennio Morricone's rise to film music prominence and worldwide acclaim began in 1964 when he teamed up with friend and former classmate, director Sergio Leone, for a series of westerns (the Italian-produced "spaghetti westerns"), beginning with "A Fistful of Dollars" in 1964. Morricone's innovative scores for Leone's films incorporated gunshots, whip cracks, whistling, wordless vocals, Jew's harp, and electric guitars. The spare, evocative soundscapes shot through with memorable instrumental motifs changed the way westerns sounded forever and have influenced Hollywood soundtracks ever since. Most recently, Morricone's music can be heard in Quentin Tarantino's just-released World War II romp "Inglourious Basterds."

In addition to receiving an Honorary Oscar in 2007 and five previous Academy Award nominations, Morricone has been showered with awards and accolades including five BAFTAs (the British equivalent of the Oscar), eight Nastro D'Argento and seven David di Donatello awards in his native Italy, and France's Legion of Honor Knighthood in 2009. His Oscar nominations were for scores to such wide-ranging films as Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven," Roland Joffé's "The Mission," Brian De Palma's "The Untouchables," Barry Levinson's "Bugsy," and Giuseppe Tornatore's "Malena."

Morricone was born in Rome on November 10, 1928, earned a degree in composition from the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in 1954 and has since scored more than 450 films. He scored his first film, "Il Federale," in 1961 and his unique collaboration with Sergio Leone extended to the westerns "For a Few Dollars More," "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" -- the 1967 soundtrack LP was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009 -- "Once Upon a Time in the West," "A Fistful of Dynamite," and the gangster epic "Once Upon a Time in America." Morricone - who scored 20 films in 1968 alone - has composed music for everything from comedies (all three "La Cage aux Folles" films) and cult thrillers (Mario Bava's "Danger: Diabolik" and Dario Argento's "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage," "The Cat o' Nine Tails," and "Four Flies on Grey Velvet") to historical dramas (Gilo Pontecorvo's "The Battle of Algiers," Bernardo Bertolucci's "1900") and science fiction (Brian De Palma's "Mission to Mars," John Carpenter's "The Thing").

Along the way, he has also worked with such acclaimed directors as Pier Paolo Pasolini ("The Decameron," "120 Days of Sodom"), Giuseppe Tornatore ("Cinema Paradiso," "The Legend of 1900"), Pedro Almodovar ("Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!"), Roman Polanski ("Frantic"), John Boorman ("Exorcist II: The Heretic"), Wolfgang Peterson ("In the Line of Fire"), Mike Nichols ("Wolf"), Lina Wertmuller ("Violent City"), Samuel Fuller ("White Dog"), Warren Beatty ("Bulworth"), and Oliver Stone ("U-Turn").

"Inglourious Basterds" is not the only Tarantino film to incorporate Morricone's work. The director is such a fan of Morricone's music that he's integrated many of the maestro's previous compositions into the soundtracks for both "Kill Bill" films and his "Death Proof" portion of "Grindhouse." Morricone's influence also extends into the realm of pop music: Hugo Montenegro's version of the main theme to "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" hit No. 2 on the U.S. charts in 1968 -- and a 2007 tribute album ("We All Love Ennio Morricone") featured interpretations of the maestro's works by such diverse artists as Bruce Springsteen, Herbie Hancock & Quincy Jones, Yo-Yo Ma, Metallica, Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, Chris Botti, and Celine Dion, whose contribution "I Know I Loved You" sports lyrics written by Marilyn & Alan Bergman to "Deborah's Theme" from "Once Upon a Time in America."

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