Last night I saw the splendid film "La Vita e Bella" ("Life is Beautiful")
which I highly recommend even in the light of some ambivalence toward it.
In the first half of the film we see a splendid banquet with a live
orchestra in attendance.  There was a brief shot of a valve trombone.
Are/Were valve trombones popular in Italy, moreso than the slide models?

Also, there was something on the soundtrack that sounded like a variation
of Mozart's "Musical Joke," and I couldn't figure out from the credits what
it was.  Anybody know?

There are also some interesting bits set to the Barcarolle from "Tales of
Hoffmann," both in the first (happy) and second (grim) halves of the film.
Upon reflection it occurred to me that a record of Offenbach in a Nazi
concentration camp would be uncharacteristic since O's music was officially
banned in the Third Reich owing to his Jewish background.  I'm not quite
sure if this was a lapse in the film or if the filmmakers were trying to
make a statement that escaped me somehow.

Aaron J. Rabushka
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