They are among the most beautiful and exciting musical pages written by Maestro Ennio Morricone. The soundtrack of the Drama Marco Polo, produced by RAI in 1982, will be premiered on June 29, 2024 (21.00 CET) in Venice, and live streamed exclusively on SigmArt, as part of the celebrations for the 700th anniversary of the death of the Venetian traveler and man of letters (1324-2024).

"Ennio Morricone – Marco Polo Soundtrack", a Zen Production in collaboration with Veneto Jazz and SigmArt, under the patronage of the City of Venice, the National Committee for the celebrations of the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death and Vela Spa, on a project by the Orchestra Regionale Filarmonia Veneta, on stage with the Cantori Veneziani, conducted by Danilo Rossi, first viola at the Teatro La Scala in Milan.

This is a unique opportunity to listen to the timeless melodies of Maestro Morricone from a live orchestra on original scores, accompanied by images from one of Rai's most successful dramas, directed by Giuliano Montaldo (1930-2023). An unprecedented production, which embraces music, cinema and history, made possible by the collaboration with Rai, which made the images available, and with the Morricone family, which granted the original scores.

Marco Polo's soundtrack has 36 tracks for over two hours of music. Released on vinyl in 1983 with the Fonit Cetra label, it was reissued on double CD with the Rai Trade label in 2004. The drama, a colossal with impressive numbers and the first collaboration between a Western and a Chinese TV broadcast, was presented to the press and insiders in September 1982 with a private screening at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice in the presence, among others, of the then president of the Italian Republic Sandro Pertini.

Venice could therefore only be the theater of this new project that crosses different destinies, such as that of maestro Danilo Rossi who will conduct the concert, who says that he became passionate about the viola precisely by listening to Marco's Theme, so much so that he bought and played the instrument that belonged to Dino Asciolla, the soloist who recorded the soundtrack in 1982.

MARCO POLO MOVIE
December 5, 1982. The first episode of what is probably the last of RAI's great dramas is aired: Marco Polo by Giuliano Montaldo. It was the first collaboration between a Western and a Chinese television broadcast. It was financed by the U.S. companies NBC and Procter & Gamble, Japan's Tentsu and TBS, and China's CCAA (China-film production).
As the director Giuliano Montaldo recounts, the idea for the drama came to the then director of RAI, after meeting the members of an Italian delegation returning from a trip to Beijing in the late seventies. It was one of the first official visits to China after World War II.
The delegation was pleasantly surprised to see that Chinese officials toasted Marco Polo as an "Italian friend of China." The idea of the drama was seen by all producers as an opportunity for détente in relations with the countries of the Soviet bloc after the Cold War.
The role of Marco Polo, a merchant and explorer born in Venice in the thirteenth century, is played by Kenneth Marshall. The series also stars Denholm Elliott, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Leonard Nimoy and Burt Lancaster.
Endless deserts and crowded cities, fountains of fire, the hunting trips and festivals of a warrior and at the same time cultured society, the palace of the Great Khan, the towers of Mien, treasures and spices. The amazement of a merchant who, on a twenty-year journey, arrived at the center of a fantasy world.
In almost ten hours of film and eight episodes, Giuliano Montaldo revives Marco Polo's extraordinary adventure in a colossal with impressive numbers: 20 billion lire, 13 months of work, 180 actors, 5000 generics, 4000 costumes used, TV rights sold in 70 countries, peaks of 26 million viewers per episode.