SPAGHETTI WESTERN was a term of abuse invented by American critics for the Wild West movies made by Italian directors in the 1960s, but the Italians were to have the last laugh.
Today, the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone are among the most iconic, best loved, and artistically successful of all westerns.
A Fistful of Dollars (1964 ), For a Few Dollars More (1965 ), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966 ) are milestones in the Wild West film cannon, which made international stars of Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef, and introduced the world to one of the greatest film composers of all time - Ennio Morricone.
Although Morricone has written music for all genres of film, his most famous compositions have been for the spaghetti western, particularly the atmospheric and unforgettable title music for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Next month, Galwegians will be able to hear music from Leone’s Dollars Trilogy when the acclaimed Spaghetti Western Orchestra play a ‘Róisín Dubh presents...’ show at The Black Box Theatre on Friday February 24 at 7pm
The orchestra - Boris Conley, Jess Ciampa, Graeme Leak, Shannon Birchall, Patrick Cronin, and Denis Blais - who, on more than 100 instruments, perform a fistful of Ennio Morricone, with hilarious sound effects.
See them blowing on bottles, crushing cornflakes, ‘playing’ coathangers, fruit, squeaky toys, rubber gloves, bicycle pumps and more in order to recreate every punch up, gunshot, and jangling spur that define the gun slinging west.
The orchestra’s shows have drawn great praise from the critics. The Daily Telegraph called them “wildly inventive and funny” while The Guardian said: “That the musicians perform with the enormous gravity of a Mozart symphony only serves to make this extraordinary show all the funnier.”
Tickets are available from the Róisín Dubh and www.roisindubh.net as well as the Town Hall on 091 - 569777 and www.tht.ie See www.spaghettiwesternorchestra.com
