Sixteen - The Osiris-Light in Nino Rota's Music

Summary

Nino Rota's (1911–1979) music has endured in my memories since I was a child. We all know his soundtracks composed for the most important European directors of the last century, including Franco Zeffirelli, Luchino Visconti, and Lina Wertmüller; but above all, Federico Fellini, for whom Rota composed, for example, the score to 8½ (1963). Nino Rota collaborated with American directors too, such as Robert Rossen and King Vidor, and especially Francis Ford Coppola. For him, Rota composed The Godfather Part I (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), for which he won an Academy Award. The famous love theme “Siciliana” is certainly one of the best-known soundtracks.

In 2011 many academic and musical conventions were organized in celebration of Rota's one hundredth birthday. One of these events showcased Rota's noncinematic compositions—music for piano, chamber music, sacred and profane music, as well as music for orchestra, concerts, and operas. While studying Mysterium, an oratorio, I learned of Professor Vinci Verginelli (1903–1987) (see fig. 16.1), author of this libretto and others. Verginelli, Rota's great friend and partner, was a teacher of Italian and Latin at the Roman high school Liceo Virgilio. My study of the relationship between Rota and Verginelli revealed their personal and professional resonances and a shared passion for a particular kind of esotericism: the Hermetism of Giuliano Kremmerz (1879–1930), a leading esotericist of the twentieth century. Rota and Verginelli joined the Circolo Virgiliano (Society of Virgil), one of the academies founded by Kremmerz. The Circolo was part of the Fraternity of Myriam, which was modeled on the Great Osiris Egyptian Order. Following Kremmerz's doctrine, Osiris, the ancient Egyptian god of medicine and the sun, was held in high regard in the art of healing. In this “Kremmerzian” school, members studied the universal laws of nature and learned to direct spiritual energies for the healing of all who asked for help.

Rota and Verginelli employed a rigorous scientific method in their Hermetic investigations and maintained a strict discretion. The only exception was two institutional gifts of books and manuscripts. In 1986, a few years after Rota's death, Verginelli donated five hundred texts to the National Academy of Lincei in Rome. This collection was named the Verginelli-Rota Collection of Ancient Hermetic Books (Fifteenth–Eighteenth Centuries).