Score

This is true - and that's why it is so good! I generally prefer Rota's concert production to the film scores for which he is famous. "Il Gattopardo" is peculiar in this respect, exactly for the reason that you mention (*). "La Strada" is also great, but I prefer the suite from the ballet to the film score itself, although in that case, the ballet was done after the film. (*) For those who are not familiar with Rota's concert works, we are talking about this beautiful piece, which was then used as the love theme from "Il Gattopardo": Originally, it was indeed the 3rd movement of "Sinfonia sopra una canzone d'amore" (Symphony on a love song).

This is a very good one, arguably Rota's best film score.

Yes, but the Italian title (the one used by Morricone) is "Mission"... I was being philologically correct! (It was also an attempt to avoid confusion with the piece by JW called "The Mission").

Mission, by Ennio Morricone.

John Wheeliams! I just saw the video of the Devil's Dance, from which this clip is taken. Is he repeatedly saying "wow" while conducting?

It means "renaming". The previous name was "Auditorium Parco della Musica", the new name is "Auditorium Ennio Morricone". It is written a bit more explicitly here: https://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/cultura/musica/2020/07/17/campidoglio-dice-si-lauditorium-si-chiamera-morricone_0a2922ce-3dc3-41d7-bc62-aea29e80ea57.html

Indeed, there must be something wrong. The bassoon is not a serious instrument.

Also among mine! Really a fantastic score. I was meaning that the general public is much less aware of that one, compared for instance with the main themes of Mission, Once Upon a Time in the West / America, and so on, which everyone knows. Interesting, I didn't know that! I'm not familiar with The Return of Ringo. With hindsight, the cue sounds a bit "out" with respect to the rest of The Secret of the Sahara, but it is gorgeous, so I am fine with that. Actually, it works perfectly in Inglourious Basterds as well!

A masterpiece that is not as well known as it should be (at least here), is "The Secret of the Sahara", the score for an Italian TV miniseries. The main theme is absolutely gorgeous, and the rest of the score is full of highlights ("The Hawk", "The Mountain", which was also used in Inglorious Bastards...). It's strange that he never played a suite from it in concerts.

It says: Tema 4 volte: 1) Libero e lento (espressivo) 2) Poco più mosso 3) Più mosso e cresc. (arpeggi) 4) Forte which means: Theme 4 times: 1) Free and slow (expressive) 2) Moving a little 3) Moving and "crescendo" (with arpeggios) 4) Forte

From what I understood from reading interviews in the course of the years, Andrea Morricone composed the love theme, at least in terms of melody and harmony. Then, I don't know (and I think nobody knows) whether he also did the orchestral arrangement, or if that was done by Ennio. A few years ago, I saw a manuscript on Andrea Morricone's website (which is not available anymore) with the theme written on two staves; it was claimed to be the original manuscript of that piece, before the orchestration. I recall it was written in the key of F sharp minor, instead of G minor, which is the key in which it was arranged for the movie. The page also had several textual annotations in Ennio Morricone's handwriting, which I know from other sources, with schematic instructions on how to build the structure of the piece. It's a shame I cannot find that site anymore! EDIT: I had saved the picture on my PC! Here it is. It is really a preliminary sketch. There is an annotation at the beginning to transpose up 1/2 tone, and I am almost 100% sure that the text at the bottom of the page is in Ennio's handwriting. It says that the theme should be repeated 4 times, with a simple description of how it should be varied each time.

What a sad news to wake up to. I feel like I've lost someone very close to me. His music has greatly enriched my life. R.I.P.

Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to make sense of the numbers of registered infected people and deaths. The number of people being tested, and so the ability to detect the virus, is not constant in time, depending on the availability of test kits and on many other factors, including delays in communication due to the technical time needed for analysis. It is sure that the number of registered infected people and deaths both largely underestimate the real numbers, so variations from one day to the next are not extremely significant. And even if we had a perfect ability to correctly identify all cases, the curve of deaths would start to decrease much later than the curve of infections. If we expect to see a decrease in the number of symptomatic infections 3-4 weeks after the beginning of the lockdown (but who knows for sure? the period of incubation is variable), the decrease in the number of deaths might occur in 4-5 or even 6 weeks (assuming deaths occur 7-10 days after the onset of the symptoms - but again, who knows?). Anyway, the difficulties in the detection make a day-by-day analysis rather difficult and potentially misleading. A more reliable indicator seems to be the daily number of people requiring hospital care (both "soft" and intensive), as it's almost impossible that someone who has such bad symptoms as to require hospitalization will not even contact the hospital - and then, the case would be registered. But these numbers are not communicated with the same emphasis in reports. Mmm... not really, no. At least, not everywhere. Social isolation is essential, numbers would doubtlessly be much worse without that. Unfortunately, the effect is slow, and difficult to analyze right now. The impact will be easier to assess when the damn thing is over.

The above sentence is not the same (neither in content, nor in tone) as saying that we had many casualties because we have many old people.

Thank you very much for this precious insight and sympathetic comment on our current situation (we will surpass 5000 deaths today). You have written several ignorant and cynical comments in this thread, but this one is also offensive and racist. And, needless to say, based on nothing. Look at any table on life expectancy by country and judge by yourself the worth of your stereotypes. Nobody needs nonsense right now.