Armando Trovajoli Dies At 95

Italian composer Armando Trovajoli, composed music for some 300 films, has died at age 95.

The Italian news agency ANSA said widow Maria Paola Trovajoli announced the death Saturday, saying her husband had died a few days before in Rome but declining to give the exact date.

Together with Goffredo Petrassi, Trovaioli composed the score of Giuseppe De Santis’ Bitter Rice (1949). In 1951 Trovaioli was invited by Dino De Laurentiis to write music for Anna, a film directed by Alberto Lattuada: particularly the song El Negro Zumbon became an international success: inspired by tropical rhythms, is sung in playback and danced by Silvana Mangano, but actually performed by Flo Sandon’s.

Since then, Trovaioli wrote soundtracks for directors as Dino Risi (Poveri milionari, Il vedovo, I mostri, Il profeta, Vedo nudo, La moglie del prete, Noi donne siamo fatte così, Sessomatto, Profumo di donna, La stanza del vescovo, Giovani e belli), Vittorio De Sica (La ciociara, Ieri, oggi, domani, Matrimonio all’italiana), Ettore Scola (Se permettete parliamo di donne, L’arcidiavolo, Riusciranno i nostri eroi a ritrovare l’amico misteriosamente scomparso in Africa?, Il Commissario Pepe, Dramma della gelosia – Tutti i particolari in cronaca, La più bella serata della mia vita, C’eravamo tanto amati, Brutti, sporchi e cattivi, Una giornata particolare, Maccheroni, La Famiglia), Luigi Magni (Faustina, Nell’anno del Signore, La Tosca, In nome del Papa Re) and others, for a total of over 300 scores.