![]() ![]() Italian director Adolfo Celi was pretty inexperienced then this was the second film he directed (he would make just one more, 17 years later, in Italy). The DVD has not been restored, so the images are mostly blurred, dark or flat, and the sound is terrible. This is a terribly dated film, a fake biography with confusing script, awful dialogues, cliché plot, cardboard characters and awkward performances (especially by lead actor Anselmo Duarte, too old for the part and very unconvincing as a "naive" young man of genius), making it hard to be enjoyable in any level today, not even as a nostalgic relic. fiction!) re-telling of his life, not necessarily true events (!!!). Well, to be fair with the guys who made the film, there's a warning in the opening credits stating what we're about to see is a "romanticized" (i.e. Hardly anything you see in the film really happened the way it's shown. Abreu was married to Durvalina (who was NOT from his hometown) from the age of 19 until his death at 55, had eight children (not three as portrayed in the film), and the character of Branca (the "muse") is fiction - in fact, "Branca" is the title of one of his waltzes. The younger generation may recall Brazilian actress Denise Dumont singing it on-screen in Woody Allen's "Radio Days" (1987), in a somewhat Cubanized version, with Tito Puente's percussion. Then in 1943 it suddenly became an international hit when organist Ethel Smith played it in Walt Disney's animated film "Saludos Amigos", later reinforced by Carmen Miranda's zestful rendition of the song in "Copacabana" (1947). The instrumental theme "TIco-Tico no Fubá" enjoyed a mild success in dancing rooms of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in the 20s and 30s, until in 1942 (Abreu was already dead by then) a version with lyrics became a big hit in Brazil with virtuoso "choro" singer Ademilde Fonseca. In reality, Abreu was a moderately successful composer/band-leader from small town Santa Rita do Passa Quatro (near São Paulo), who wrote mostly simple waltzes, "choros" and polkas and composed the title song in 1917 (at 37, not in his early twenties as in the film) - FAR from anything Beethovenian. One evening, at the circus, Branca inspires him to improvise the catchy melody of the title song, which he eventually somehow manages to forget entirely, until, years later, it suddenly comes back to him just minutes before his untimely death. He can't decide whether to marry his small town sweetheart Durvalina (inexpressive Marisa Prado) or to elope with beautiful circus horse-rider/ballerina Branca (gorgeous Tonia Carrero, sadly wasted). He is portrayed here as some kind of misunderstood music genius - we see Beethoven's bust on his piano and he literally sweats and shouts to make his band musicians get things right. O'Connor is the founder of the internationally recognized Mark O'Connor String Camp currently held at the Berklee College of Music."Tico-Tico no Fubá" is supposed to portray the life story of Brazilian composer Zequinha de Abreu (1880-1935), played by an awfully miscast Anselmo Duarte, but nothing could be less accurate. O'Connor regularly conducts residencies at Juilliard School, Harvard University, Cleveland Institute of Music, Rice University, University of Maryland,Curtis Institute, Eastman School of Music, Tanglewood, and Aspen Summer Festival among others.He currently serves as Artist-in-Residence for the 2nd year in a row at the University of Miami. If O’Connor is the new Suzuki, then Boil ‘em Cabbage Down is the new Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”Viola, Cello and Orchestra Books are also featured in the series. His orchestral compositions have received over 600 performances with symphony orchestras.The recently released O'Connor Method has been widely praised.Strad Magazine says "The succession of melodies is attractive and carefully planned. ![]() Mark O’Connor is a multi Grammy Award winning composer/violinist/fiddler. ![]()
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