CINICO ANGELINI

Born: November 12th, 1901, Crescentino (Italy)
Died: July 7th, 1983, Rome (Italy)
Nationality: Italian

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

Cinico Angelini (pseudonym of Angelo Cinico) was born in a village in the north-western Italian region of Piedmont. Being an autodidact at the violin, he did not go to conservatory. At 19 years of age, he moved to Turin and played as a violinist in small entertainment ensembles in coffee houses. In 1925, he formed his first orchestra, the Perroquet Royal Band, with which he worked in Caracas, Venezuela, for four years. Upon his return in Italy, he formed a new dance band with which he performed in the Sala Gay, a well-known entertainment bar in Turin. In the course of the 1930s, Angelini and his orchestra became frequent guests in radio programmes of Italian nationwide radio (EIAR), in which they performed light opera repertoire as well as romantic and popular songs. In 1938, Angelini was contracted by EIAR and formed a radio orchestra. His trademark was the traditional orchestra d’archi, a string-dominated ensemble in which brass and especially percussion did not feature prominently.

After the war, he and his orchestra continued to work for Italian radio, working with artists such as Nilla Pizzi, Michele Montanari, and Trio Lescano. In 1951, Angelini’s orchestra accompanied all entries in the very first Sanremo Song Festival, won by Nilla Pizzi. Angelini worked as a musical director in the Sanremo Festival on seven more occasions between 1952 and 1962. In the early 1960s, with a new generation of singers heavily influenced by rock ‘n’ roll making their mark, Angelini’s string orchestra sound was progressively deemed outdated, which resulted in him not being asked again for the Sanremo Festival.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

Cinico Angelini joined the winner of the Sanremo Festival to the Eurovision Song Contest twice. In 1960, in the Royal Festival Hall in London, he conducted the orchestra for Renato Rascel who sang ‘Romantica’ - in an arrangement by none other than future soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone. Two years later, he travelled to Luxembourg with Claudio Villa, who sang a song by Domenico Modugno called ‘Addio, addio’. Neither of these entries did particularly well in the contest, finishing in the bottom-half of the table.

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1960 London

Country – Italy

Song title – "Romantica"

Rendition – Renato Rascel

Lyrics – Dino Verde

Composition – Renato Rascel

Studio arrangement – Marcello De Martino

Live orchestration – Ennio Morricone

Conductor – Cinico Angelini

Score – 8th place (5 votes)

1962 Luxembourg

Country – Italy

Song title – "Addio, addio"

Rendition – Claudio Villa

Lyrics – Franco Migliacci

Composition – Domenico Modugno

Studio arrangement – Cinico Angelini

Live orchestration – Cinico Angelini

Conductor – Cinico Angelini

Score – 9th place (3 votes)