Pictures of Rome: Nino Rota and Ottorino Respighi

No objection, opera dominated within the Italian music for centuries and many (if not most) of the top opera composers of all times were Italians. However, Italian music also includes instrumental music works of exceptional beauty! If you still doubt, it's worth to discover along with the Athens State Orchestra, the Italian conductor and guest of the former, Massimo Zanetti, one of the top lead musicians of his generation at a European level; Giuseppe Martucci's (also called the Italian "Brahms") romantic music; Ottorino Respighi's seducing impressionism and the light, intensely narrative music of Nino Rota who, apart from composing film scores, he also wrote several high quality symphonic works.