Press Release from Quartet:
Quartet Records, in collaboration with GDM and Universal Music Publishing Italia, presents a remastered reissue of the ultimate edition of Ennio Morricone’s score for Elio Petri’s 1971 social drama LA CLASSE OPERAIA VA IN PARADISO (aka THE WORKING CLASS GOES TO HEAVEN), a robust social drama about a conscientious factory worker who becomes a political activist after accidentally cutting off his finger while working on a machine. Starring Gian Maria Volonté, the film won the Palme d’Or at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival, with a special mention for Volonté as Best Actor.
As he had done for other filmmakers, Morricone created a particular sound for Petri’s social cinema, based on grotesque forms and adding profane elements to the music itself. In LA CLASSE OPERAIA VA IN PARADISO, Morricone composed one of his most famous main themes: a grotesque, cartoonish march that defines the alienated work of a factory, to which he added sound effects, electric guitars, violin, piano and the noises of machines and drills.
Released on a limited promotional LP in Italy in 1971 and reissued in France in 1982, the soundtrack was later released on CD by RCA in the 1990s, and an expanded edition containing virtually the entire score recorded by Morricone was released by GDM in 2009. This is a reissue of that, but freshly remastered by Chris Malone from the original master tapes and supervised by Claudio Fuiano. The package includes, for the first time, the original cover art of the coveted promotional vinyl and an essay by Miguel Ángel Ordóñez discussing the film and the score.
