Nino Rota

Nino Rota (1911-1979) was an Italian composer, best known for his film music. Rota began his career with an oratorio at age 12, and much of his attention in his student years was devoted to opera. Rota scored his first film in 1944, Castellani's Zazà, and subsequently composed music for such directors as Luchino Visconti, Franco Zeffirelli, and King Vidor, among many others. But his three-decade association with Federico Fellini yielded 80 scores, including La Strada, La Dolce Vita, and Amarcord, and Rota's music for Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather became some of his best-known work. ~ Blair Sanderson, All Music Guide