Il Était Une Fois... Ennio Morricone & Nino Rota

At L'Amphithéâtre 3000: a cinematic symphony in the heart of Lyon

At L'Amphithéâtre 3000, we are delighted to welcome Il Etait une fois Ennio Morricone & Nino Rota, a grand-scale homage that transforms our stage into a sweeping panorama of cinema in sound. From our vantage point, hosting this event means shaping an immersive journey through the themes that have moved generations, carried by the resonance and clarity our hall is designed to deliver. Expect the luminous tenderness of Cinema Paradiso and the spiritual arc of The Mission with its iconic Gabriel’s Oboe, right alongside the unmistakable edge and swagger of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and the brooding silhouette of The Ecstasy of Gold. In counterpoint, the lyrical warmth and bittersweet charm of Nino Rota’s world emerge through the Love Theme from The Godfather, the nostalgic hues of Amarcord, and the urbane elegance that glows in La Dolce Vita and 8½. With every cue, our room’s architecture—sightlines, depth, and acoustic bloom—underlines the storytelling. When the harmonica from Once Upon a Time in the West slices through the hush, or when strings unfurl Deborah’s Theme from Once Upon a Time in America, the music’s drama meets our space’s ability to cradle both whisper and thunder.

What you will hear and feel on our stage

Il Etait une fois Ennio Morricone & Nino Rota is curated as a living dialogue between two masters who wrote for the screen but spoke to the human heart. From our stage team’s perspective, the program’s architecture invites contrasts: the burnished brass of Morricone’s western canvases against the supple woodwinds and waltz-like turns that Rota favored for Fellini; a lone oboe singing in relief, a solo trumpet tracing horizon lines, a guitar or mandolin flicker evoking memory and streetscapes. Our hall amplifies that coloristic detail—crisp attacks, generous sustain, and a warmth that allows pianissimo passages to carry effortlessly to the upper rows. Audiences can anticipate suites that thread landmark cues with more intimate interludes, moments where the rhythm section underpins a gentle lilt, then gives way to choral resonance or to the haunting tension of a single sustained note. We have prepared a lighting palette that follows the music’s psychology—brighter washes for the festive sparkle of Roma glimpsed through Rota’s lens, deeper tones for Morricone’s vast, dust-lit vistas. The cumulative effect is not just a concert but an experience in contour and cadence, where the familiar becomes immediate and the rediscovered feels inevitable.

From the standpoint of our programming season at L'Amphithéâtre 3000, Il Etait une fois Ennio Morricone & Nino Rota arrives at a moment when symphonic film music is drawing new listeners and rewarding connoisseurs alike. The production celebrates enduring signatures while opening doors to lesser-heard pages—melodies whose finesse can be overshadowed by the fame of the blockbusters they accompany. That means you may be swept from the stately arc of Romeo and Juliet into the bittersweet reveries of Amarcord, and then toward the rhythmic gravitas of Once Upon a Time in the West without ever losing the thread of a shared musical language. As hosts, we cherish how this evening reframes the concert hall as a cinema of the ears: the pulse of timpani setting a scene, the caress of strings conjuring memory, the solitary harmonica or accordion sketching character. Whether you come seeking the surge of The Ecstasy of Gold, the luminous ache of Deborah’s Theme, or the courtly poise of The Godfather, this program answers with precision, nuance, and breadth. Our team is poised to welcome you in optimal conditions—from the first tuning note to the final ovation—so that every color, silence, and crescendo carries with the full measure of intention these scores deserve.