Ennio Morricone – an Italian sensation in Beijing

Chinese novelist, Hong Ying, at the Ennio Morricone concert.

Italy wowed China last night when the great composer Ennio Morricone conducted an Italian orchestra in a concert of his film music. The venue could not have been more prestigious: the Great Hall of the People next to Tiananmen Square in the centre of Beijing. Chinese film directors like John Woo and authors like Hong Ying had come to pay their tribute, along with a full house audience, cramming the rows of desk seats in the huge auditorium usually used by delegates of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese Commmunist Party.

The 81-year-old Morricone, looking as spry as a man in his sixties, started with Legend of 1900 merging into Once Upon A Time in America, followed by more medleys ending on an extraordinary combination of violin and voice. He left the stage and brought in The Voice herself; a stunning brunette half draped in red velvet. And then he gave us the theme tune of The Good the Bad and the Ugly. I wept, recalling when I was in my teens and had been swept away by his music for the first time. I wasn’t the only one moved. There were yells of appreciation from the largely Chinese audience and the atmosphere at times was more like a pop concert.

Ennio Morricone on stage in Beijing

The concert ended on The Mission, the whole orchestra working themselves up into a surge of dancing instruments, the sound swelled – magic – joy!

Then the first encore. A rousing choral piece. A Standing ovation. And another encore – and another, this time with The Voice herself back and a full choir behind her. Morricone gave us Gold from The Good The Bad and the Ugly. Again I lost myself – but so had the rest of the audience. Hong Ying and the woman on my left were screaming at the ecstatic crescendo.

Back Morricone came again to end on a dignified, elegiac Nuovo Cinema Paradiso. Afterwards he made his final bow and the lights went on – but the audience continued screaming for more. A young man was standing on one of the desks shouting “I love you. Wo ai ni! Don’t go!” The auditorium lights snapped off again. Morricone came back, weeping himself now, and conducted the love song from Once Upon A Time In America he had given us at the beginning! What an evening! Eight standing ovations! Maestro!