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Quartet Records presents a Nino Rota & Franco Zeffirelli & William Shakespeare celebration!
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on 2-CD set
Music Composed by Nino Rota
Conducted by Carlo Savina
Restored and Mastered by Chris Malone
Liner notes by Frank K. DeWald
With this album we also proudly celebrates our 400th release!
Quartet Records, GDM and EMI Music Italy proudly present a double CD-set with the completely remastered release of the romantic symphonic score by Nino Rota (LA DOLCE VITA, IL GATTOPARDO, THE GODFATHER) for Franco Zeffirelli’s adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, released in 1967 and starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Cyril Cusack, Michael York and Michael Hordern.
Although they had previously collaborated together, precisely on two adaptations of Shakespeare plays at the Old Vic Theater in London, THE TAMING OF THE SHREW was the first film collaboration between Rota and Zeffirelli, affording the composer the opportunity (as he had had with Visconti some years before) to show his symphonic side rather than the more popular music heard in his famous scores for Fellini. The brilliant, charming music of THE TAMING OF THE SHREW abounds in attractive themes and motifs, memorable and sufficiently malleable to be subjected to extensive variations in color, mood, and even counterpoint. Rota demonstrates the chameleonic nature of his themes in the ways he shades them to cover the vast array of Shakespearean emotions in the film.
The score of THE TAMING OF THE SHREW has been released several times before, including an LP from RCA that featured dialogue and a little bit of Rota’s score, and on CD at least three times (in Italy, USA and Japan). All these previous releases were mastered from mono stems, with some abrupt edits, although of course it was the only way to enjoy this wonderful score ... until today! For this 2-CD set, Chris Malone has worked his magic, rebuilding everything from the ground up using new mono elements recently discovered in Italy. We have also included the album mock-up prepared by Rota in 1967 that was never released (it was replaced by the RCA dialogue LP). The Rota album is interesting because it includes some different versions or alternate takes to those included in the film. Disc One, with the complete score, has been slightly expanded vis-à-vis previous editions. It is presented in the original mono mix (without fake stereo reverb) and in strict film order. The entire project has been supervised by Claudio Fuiano.
The package comes with detailed liner notes by Frank K. DeWald that discuss the film, the score and the Rota/Zeffirelli/Shakespeare collaboration.
ROMEO & JULIET
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Music Composed by Nino Rota
Restored and Mastered by Chris Malone
Liner notes by Frank K. DeWald
Quartet Records, Universal Music Group and Geffen Records present the long-requested remastered reissue of this timeless, evergreen romantic score by Nino Rota (WAR AND PEACE, AMARCORD, IL CASANOVA) for Franco Zeffirelli’s brilliant adaptation of William Shakespeare’s popular classic ROMEO & JULIET.
Directed by Zeffirelli in 1968 for Paramount Pictures, it stars Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey as the young lovers, as well as John McEnery, Robert Stephens and Michael York. The film was a risky production at a time where the world was changing, with Vietnam and much social unrest consuming the news, but the film was a huge worldwide success, especially in the United States, where teenagers had experienced three political assassinations in the preceding five years and were becoming more and more aware of the war in Vietnam. Young audiences, looking for affirmations of love among themselves rather than from adults, eagerly embraced this tale of thwarted young love.
Nino Rota’s score is a marvel of both simplicity and sophistication. It suggests music of the Renaissance era without direct quotes and through its own modern sensibilities, including what is possibly one of the most famous love themes in film music history—perhaps the composer’s most popular piece, along with the love theme from THE GODFATHER.
Because the original sessions tapes are long lost, we have decided to reissue the largely out-of-print original Capitol album which covers virtually the entire score (only about 12 minutes of music have been lost—mostly brief repetitions of the love theme and Romeo's theme here and there). Produced in beautiful stereo, the audio has been warmly restored and mastered by Chris Malone from the first-generation album masters courtesy of UMG—now sounding better than ever.
The package comes with detailed liner notes by Frank K. DeWald, discussing the film, the score and the Rota/Zeffirelli/Shakespeare collaboration.
Both releases are in stock now. For order, more info and listen audio samples, please visit www.quartetrecords.com
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Is there a limit on these releases? Both of them look splendid, though it is a shame to hear that the original masters for Romeo are lost.
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Is this the Romeo and Juliet album that has dialogue all through it?
No, it's the music-only album.
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Does the ROMEO AND JULIET release have the “Moresca” dance? The original Capitol music release did not. The only album including it was a re-recording. (Maybe because it was a traditional piece, not composed by Rota.)
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Does the ROMEO AND JULIET release have the “Moresca” dance? The original Capitol music release did not. The only album including it was a re-recording. (Maybe because it was a traditional piece, not composed by Rota.)
Unfortunately no, because as described in the press release, the original tapes are sadly lost.
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Comparing to my Verita Note CD, I think La Bisbetica Domata must have at least 10 additional minutes? Although that CD had 2 bonus tracks and I'm not sure where they fit in...
The first Quartet CD with the complete score has about 62 minutes. My DRG CD had 59 minutes (the Verita Note CD which had the additional track "Katharina´s Revenge" with 3:08 minutes without Richard Burton´s voice was 61 minutes long), but had an alternate track of "Honeymoon" with three minutes (and with dialogue) at the end. So there are probably about six minutes more on the Quartet CD which can mostly be found in track 8 ("Nella casa di Petruchio") and 9 ("Conquista di Caterina") - each of them has about two minutes more of music.
Unfortunately, Rota´s own album mock-up on disc 2 seems to still have some severe sound problems like the old Screen Trax CD. You can already notice it by listening to the sound clips.
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Incredible! So excited about a Taming of the Shrew upgrade. I always felt the score deserved better treatment. Thanks so much Quartet.
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Haha I agree. In fact someone asked me on Facebook, "Is the Silva version worth buying over this you think?"
and I replied, "Cole depends on what you like. If you prefer modern sound and a bigger orchestra, yes (major caveat: the vocalist for "What Is a Youth?" totally sucks). It's also more complete.
BUT I personally prefer the original performance under Rota's baton, written and performed more as a chamber score with a more intimate feel. This is just one of those many cases where I prefer the feel of the original over the re-recording, even though the re-recording is quite good on its own merits.
I'm happy to own both."
But I'd also point out to you Basil that Romeo doesn't sing the song in the film.
Yavar
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(thankfully we have the Silva re-recording!) That said, I'm sure this is worth buying for the liner notes and Chris Malone's work, which will surely make this sound better than any prior edition.
