IT WAS called the musical offer that Francis Ford Coppola could not refuse. Indeed, Nino Rota's score of Coppola's great film, The Godfather, is just as haunting in memory as the movie itself.
For two nights only this March, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, led by American composer and conductor Justin Freer, will perform the melancholic waltzing soundtrack to this acclaimed film whilst audiences enjoy the screening of the popular motion picture in the epic surroundings of Hamer Hall.
Nino Rota was chosen as composer for the 1972 film due to his work on Italian movies by Fellini and Visconti, and was judged by Coppola to be able to give the work the appropriate 'Italian' feel.
The director's insight was right: Rota's score is ranked No.5 in the American Film Institute's list of greatest film scores and the single trumpet opening and lush love theme have become two of American cinema's most famous pieces of music.
As well as an iconic score, The Godfather is also recognised for revitalising the career of Marlon Brando, in a role for which he later won an Academy Award. Brando was considered 'unbankable' in the period before Coppola cast him, but his extraordinary performance put him back at the top of Hollywood.
After conducting the highly popular conclusion to The Lord of the Rings series with the MSO in 2014, Justin Freer returns to Melbourne to direct Rota's iconic score.
Freer is a highly sought-after conductor and producer of film music concerts around the world, as well as serving as composer for several independent films. He has conducted many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Chicago and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
THE GODFATHER IN CONCERT
7pm, Thursday, March 31 & Friday, April 1
Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne
$50-$130 Prices subject to change without notice
