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Curated by: Angel Rosales (25 videos)
"Speak Softly Love (Love Theme from The Godfather)" is a song written for The Godfather (1972), the first film in The Godfather trilogy. While its instrumental version is simply known as "The Godfather Love Theme", "Speak Softly Love" is the vocal version. The words are by Larry Kusik but the music itself is by Nino Rota. The signature musical theme that opens the piece closely models a theme that appears early in "Preludio - Povero Ernesto!" in the opera Don Pasquale by Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848). A similar melody also appears in the Overture to "La Forza del Destino" by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901). There are also different sets of lyrics for the song in Italian ("Parla Più Piano"), French ("Parle Plus Bas") and also in Sicilian ("Brucia La Terra"). The Sicilian version is sung by Anthony Corleone (Franc D'Ambrosio) in The Godfather Part III. Giovanni "Nino" Rota (December 3, 1911 -- April 10, 1979) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti. He also composed the music for two of Franco Zeffirelli's Shakespeare films, and for the first two films of Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy, receiving the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Godfather Part II (1974). Thanks for watching!