A critic conversing with Nino Rota at the age of eleven just prior to a performance of his oratorio, The Childhood of St. John the Baptist, in 1923:
Critic: “Do you like playing?”
Rota: “Whenever I can … Is it hard to write for a newspaper?”
Critic: “It’s not easy to do a good article”
Rota: “Have you come from Brussels specially to hear my oratorio?”
Critic: “I certainly have, my little friend.”
Rota: “That’s really funny. I won’t be conducting it tonight. Yesterday the double bass snubbed me”
Nino Rota (December 3, 1911 – April 10, 1979)
“When I’m creating at the piano, I tend to feel happy; but – the eternal dilemma – how can we be happy amid the unhappiness of others? I’d do everything I could to give everyone a moment of happiness. That’s what’s at the heart of my music.”
