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At Mills College tonight, (see program announcement below) the young Italian pianist/singer/dancer Debora Petrina performed Nino Rota's rarely heard Suite from Fellini's Casanova (1976). What a wacky piece! And so typically Rota-esque. Oddball rhythms and off-note melodies, something between cartoon music and something for the big screen. It was quite fascinating and I'd love to hear it again!
Ms Petrina is an excellent pianist and she also sings. She accompanied herself with songs by Rota and Mauro Montalbetti, and her own arrangement of Fred Rzewski's To The Earth.
But the Rota Casanova Suite was really the best. It made me want to see the movie...
But too bad there were only 30 people in the audience, all of whom seemed to have enjoyed the event.
By the way, Debora has a CD out on OgreOgress performing some very early piano pieces by Morton Feldman. I featured this CD on a Music from Other Minds program back in 2005. Its a very surprising CD.
Interesting coincidence: The architect of many of the buildings at Mills College, including the Concert Hall where tonight's performance was held, Walter Ratcliff, Jr., was also the architect of the Fidelity Bank building in downtown Berkeley, the site of last night's Terry Riley concert (see below).
