La Gazza Ladra Overture (1954)

• 68%
• 1954
• Music

An off-screen narrator introduces the MGM symphony orchestra playing in the MGM concert hall. Eighty musicians await their conductor, Johnny Green, who takes them through Rossini's overture to "La Gazza Ladra," the thieving magpie. Sometimes we see the full orchestra, head on, from the back of the concert hall. There are also swooping tracking shots taking us to close ups of Green and soloists, there are side shots, and there is lots of zooming. The men are in white tie, the few women in black dresses. Green, a white carnation on his tuxedo, stands on a small, low platform and conducts without a score in front of him.