Gian Carlo Menotti

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Gian Carlo Menotti (both Italian and Italian) was an Italian-American composer, librettist, producer, and playwright who is best known for his output of 25 operas. Despite frequently referring to himself as an American composer, he retained his Italian citizenship. His most popular opera composers of the twentieth century were written in the 1940s and 1950s. He was one of the twentieth century's most popular opera composers. Menotti, who was greatly inspired by Giacomo Puccini and Modest Mussorgsky, has continued to develop the verismo style of opera in the post-World War II period. Menotti's music, which rejects atonality and the Second Viennese School's aesthetic, is characterized by expressive lyricism that gently sets language to natural rhythms in ways that emphasize textual meaning and emphasize dramatic intent.

Menotti, like Wagner, wrote the libretti of all his operas. He created the classic Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951), as well as over two dozen other operas designed to appeal to popular taste. Several of Menotti's operas had their Broadway debuts, including two Pulitzer Prize-winning works, The Consul (1950) and The Saint of Bleecker Street (1955). Although all of his operas used English language libretti, three of his operas were also written by the composer: Amelia Goes to the Ball (1937), The Island God (1942), and The Last Savage (1963). He founded the Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of the Two Worlds) in Spoleto in 1958 and its American counterpart, Spoleto Festival USA, in 1977. In 1986, he launched a Melbourne Spoleto Festival in Australia, but after three years, he resigned.

Menotti composed music for several ballets, many choral works, chamber music, orchestral music of various types, including a symphony and stage plays, in addition to his operas. His cantata The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi, written in 1963, and Cantata Landscapes and Remembrances in 1976 – a descriptive work of Menotti's memories of America written for the United States Bicentennial. A small Mass commissioned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore – Mass for the Contemporary English Liturgy – is also worthy of note.

Menotti taught music composition on the Curtis Institute of Music faculty from 1948 to 1955. He served as the artistic director of Teatro dell'Opera di Roma from 1992 to 1994, as well as directing operas for renowned companies such as the Salzburg Festival and the Vienna State Opera.

Early life and education: 1911–1933

Menotti, who was born in Cadegliano-Viconago, Italy, near Lake Maggiore and the Swiss border, was the sixth of Alfonso and Ines Menotti's children. His father was a businessman and his mother was a gifted amateur singer. With his father and uncle jointly operating a coffee exporting business in Colombia, the family was financially stable. He learned to play the organ from his eccentric aunt LiLine Bianchini, who suffered with religious hallucinations. He was deeply religious in his youth and was greatly influenced by his parish priest Don Rimoldi.

Menotti's mother was instrumental in his musical development, and she sent all of her children to music lessons in piano, violin, and cello. In evenings hosted in the Menotti family's house, the family performed chamber music together as well as with other musicians in the area. Gian Carlo began writing songs when he was seven years old, and he wrote both the libretto and music for his first opera, The Death of Pierrot, at the age of 11. This work was presented as a home puppet show, a passion that occupied Gian Carlo's youth after he was introduced to the art of his older brother Pier Antonio. He began his formal music study at the Milan Conservatory in 1924 at the age of 13. He spent three years at the conservatory, during which he attended operas at La Scala, which cemented his lifetime passion for the art form.

Menotti's life was drastically changed by his father's death at the age of 17. Following her husband's death, Ines Menotti and Gian Carlo moved to Colombia in a futile attempt to save the family's coffee business. Before returning to Italy in 1928, she enrolled him at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Gian Carlo, armed with a letter of introduction from Arturo Toscanini's wife, studied composition at Curtis under Rosario Scalero. He met fellow Curtis schoolmate Samuel Barber, who became his partner in life as well as in their shared occupation. While studying at Curtis, Menotti spent a substantial portion of his time as a student with the Barber family in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and the two also spent several summer breaks in Europe.

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Early career: 1933–1949

Menotti and Barber spent the summer in Austria, where Menotti converted Amelia Goes to the Ball, his first mature opera (Amelia al Ballo), to his own Italian text while living in a small village on Lake Wolfgang, after graduating from the Curtis Institute in the spring of 1933. Baroness von Montechivsky, whom Menotti encountered earlier this summer in Vienna, inspired his work. The bulk of his research in Europe over the next four years involved composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He didn't finish composing the Amelia music until his return to the United States in 1937.

The Curtis Institute staged the Amelia Goes to the Ball at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia in April 1937, Margaret Daum as Amelia, and later that year, professional performances followed the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore and the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City with soprano Florence Kirk in the title role. The Metropolitan Opera was a critical success in 1938, with Muriel Dickson in the title role. Amelia al Ballo was the only one of Menotti's operas to be released in its original or perhaps "complementary" Italian libretto (alongside the English): it is an example of the modern romantic Italianate style, with a nod to (but not an adaptation of) Puccini and, especially Mascagni (whose last opera, Nerone, premiered in 1935).

Menotti was given a commission to compose The Old Maid and the Thief, one of the first such works, following Amelia Goes to the Ball's triumph. Alberto Erede conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra for the closing of the orchestra's 1938-1939 season, the opera premiered on radio broadcast on April 22, 1939, 1939. In 1941, the opera appeared in a slightly updated version by the Philadelphia Opera Company at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. With conductor Fritz Busch leading the orchestra, the New York Philharmonic decided to stage portions of the opera in 1942. In April 1948, the New York City Opera presented Amelia Goes to the Ball, both operas directed by the composer.

Menotti and Barber bought 'Capricorn', a house north of Manhattan in suburban Mount Kisco, New York, in 1943. Up until 1972, the home served as the home's artistic retreat. At this house, many of the house's major works were created. Both authors, performers, guitarists, and intellectuals were in attendance at the two regularly hosted salon gatherings in Capricorn with other well-known composers, musicians, guitarists, and intellectuals.

The Island God, Menotti's third opera, was written for the Metropolitan Opera in 1942, where it premiered to poor reviews. He believed this work fell short of because the libretto he wrote relied too heavily on metaphysics, resulting in an overly pretentious philosophical and symbolic work that failed to connect with audiences. In interviews, he said that this failure taught him "how not to write an opera." In 1943, he performed his first dramatic play without music, A Copy of Madame Aupic. When it first premiered in New Milford, Connecticut, it was not staged until 1947. A ballet, Sebastian (1944), and the Piano Concerto in A Minor (1945), two other works from this period, were published before Menotti returned to opera with The Medium in 1946. This fourth opera premiered at Columbia University and then went to a highly acclaimed run at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1947. This fourth opera premiered at Columbia University and then moved to a critically acclaimed run on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. As a preview to Menotti's fifth opera, the short one act opera The Telephone, or L'Amour à trois, was also included in this Broadway performance. These operas became Menotti's first internationally successful performances, with critically acclaimed performances in Paris and London in 1949 and later touring Europe in 1955 under Menotti's sponsorship of the US Department of State with musical forces led by Thomas Schippers. The Medium was also turned into a motion picture in 1951 starring Marie Powers and Anna Maria Alberghetti and competing in the 1952 Cannes Film Festival. It is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of opera on film ever made.

Menotti also composed music for the 1948 ballet Errand in the Maze for the Martha Graham Dance Company, and wrote two screenplays for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that were never made into films. In 1948, he accepted a teaching music composition on the Curtis Institute's faculty, a position he held until 1955. Olga Gorelli, Lee Hoiby, Stanley Hollingsworth, Leonard Kastle, George Rochberg, and Luigi Zaninelli were among his notable pupils.

Middle career: 1950–1969

Menotti's first full opera, The Consult, debuted at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1950, marked the pinnacle of the 1950s' critical acclaim. Both the Pulitzer Prize for Music and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Musical Play of the Year were given to the artist (the latter in 1954). Patricia Neway, an American soprano, appeared in Magda Sorel's tormented protagonist, for which she was rewarded the Donaldson Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1950. Menotti had intended to perform a role in a then-unknown Maria Callas, but the singer would not have it. The work has been performed in more than a dozen languages and 20 countries, and has become part of the established opera repertory.

Menotti's Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors for NBC, which was inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's painting Adoration of the Magi (c. 1485–1500). It was the first opera ever written for television in America, and it premiered on December Eve, 1951, with Chet Allen as Amahl and Rosemary Kuhlmann and his mother. The opera was so popular that it made Amahl and the Night Visitors' broadcasting became a regular Christmas tradition. The work has also been staged by several opera companies, universities, and other organisations, and has ranked as one of the twentieth century's most popular opera performances. The piece is still Menotti's most popular work.

Menotti received his second Pulitzer Prize for his opera The Saint of Bleecker Street, which premiered at the Broadway Theatre in 1955. The Drama Critics' Circle Award for best musical and the New York Music Critics' Circle Award for the best opera were also given to this work. The opera, which is set in contemporary New York, is concerned with the entanglement of the physical and spiritual worlds. The opera was staged at La Scala and the Vienna Volksoper in New York and was broadcast on BBC television in 1957. The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and Manticore (1956), a "madrigal fable" for chorus, ten dancers, and nine instruments based on the 16th century Italian madrigal comedy, were followed by this performance. The work, which was commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation in 1956, premiered at the Library of Congress in 1956 and was then staged by the New York City Ballet with dancers Nicholas Magallanes and Arthur Mitchell in 1957.

Menotti conceived the libretto for Barber's most popular opera, Vanessa, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1958, when working on The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore. Maria Golovin's opera debut at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958. Peter Herman Adler and the NBC Opera Company performed on Broadway in 1959, and the production was also shot for a nationally syndicated broadcast on NBC. Patricia Neway, Ruth Kobart, Norman Kelley, William Chapman, and Richard Cross all remained steadfast throughout the film's run.

In 1958, Menotti's founded the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. His compositional output slowed as his position as festival's chief consumed his time. He conceived the libretti for Barber's one-act opera A Hand of Bridge and Lukas Foss' Introduction and Good-byes, both of which premiered together at the Festival of Two Worlds in 1959. Antony and Cleopatra (1966), a Barber's libretto, was later updated by him. Albert Husson converted his first dramatic play without music, A Copy of Madame Aupic (1943), into a French language play, which premiered in Paris in 1959. Joel Honig, a music critic, served as his personal secretary in the late 1950s.

Menotti's year 1963 was a tumultuous one. The NBC Opera Theatre Company premiered Labyrinth's television opera Labyrinth. This opera was never intended to be moved from television to stage, unlike Amahl and the Night Visitors, and was written with the intention of utilizing special camera effects that were unique to television. The Last Savage premiered at the Opéra Comique in Paris in 1964, and the opera was given a lavish revival at the Metropolitan Opera in Paris. The French and American press disregarded this opera, but it was particularly well-received for performances at opera houses in Italy in subsequent years. His cantata The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi concerning the Children's Crusade of 1212 premiered at the Cincinnati May Festival in 1963.

Menotti wrote Martin's Lie (1964) before being commissioned by CBS for American television, but it was not intended for American television. Despite being not initially thought of as a stage performance, the opera premiered in a live theatre performance at the Bristol Cathedral on June 3, 1964, the 17th annual Bath International Music Festival's opening. The opera was then shot with the same cast for television under Kirk Browning's direction, and CBS was also broadcast nationally by CBS for the opera's United States premiere on May 30, 1965.

Thomas Schippers replaced Menotti as the festival's director in 1967, although he continued as president of the festival's board of directors for several decades. Canti della lontananza, Menotti's song cycle, was launched at Hunter College by soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, who wrote the article. He composed music for William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet's performance at the Théâtre National Populaire in 1968 with director Michael Cacoyannis. The children's opera Help, Help, the Globolinks appeared in 1969. The work was premiered at the Hamburg State Opera, and the year after, it was performed at the Santa Fe Opera and the New York City Opera.

Later career: 1970–2007

Menotti's long-term affair with Samuel Barber came to an end in 1970. Following the strong critical reaction to his 1966 opera Antony and Cleopatra, Barber had battled depression and alcoholism, which had a negative effect on his creative output and his Menotti friendship.' Barber had already begun to self isolate for long stretches of time at a chalet in Santa Christina, Italy, and had less time in Capricorn than ever. Tensions between Menotti and Barber grew, prompting Menotti to put an end to their passionate relationship and begin offering 'Capricorn' in 1970. Capricorn was sold in 1972, but the two guys remained friends after their intimate association with the company ended. Menotti bought Yester House, an 18th-century house in the Lammermuir Hills, East Lothian Scotland, in 1972. He lived there until his death thirty-five years later. He jokingly named his Scottish neighbors as "Mr McNotti" while there. Francis "Chip" Phelan, an American actor and figure skater, was adopted in 1974 by him in a fantasy that he had not known since the early 1960s. At Yester House, Chip and his wife followed Menotti and later became his wife.

The Leper, Menotti's second drama without music, premiered in Tallahassee, Florida, on April 24, 1970. The New York City Opera Company commissioned The Most Important Man, which premiered at Lincoln Center in 1971. The work, which was based on racial tensions in America starring a central black hero, was not well received by most commentators. However, Menotti personally believed that this was one of his finest operas on par with The Consul and The Saint of Bleecker Street. Tamu-Tamu's opera first appeared at the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago in 1973 as part of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences' IX Congress.

Menotti's year 1976 was particularly fruitful, with a string of premieres commissioned in honor of the Declaration of Independence's bicentennial. "Landscapes and Remembrances," the cantata in nine parts for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, premiered in Milwaukee on May 8. The piece is Menotti's most autobiographical work, with personal memories and events from his own life in America embedded within. The Opera Company of Philadelphia produced The Hero (1976), a comedic opera that satirized American politics, particularly the Watergate scandal. The Philadelphia Orchestra performed Menotti's Symphony No. 94 on August 4 of that same year. 'Halcyon Symphony' at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center under the baton of Eugene Ormandy.

Menotti founded Spoleto Festival USA, a companion festival to his Spoleto Festival (the other of its Two Worlds), in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1977. Almost half-million people visit Spoleto each summer for three weeks. These festivals were designed to attract an avid audience and support singer Shirley Vertt and choreographers Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp's careers. In 1986, he extended the concept to a Spoleto Festival in Melbourne, Australia. Menotti was the artistic director of 1986-88, but after three festivals he performed, he decided to stop – and took the naming rights with him. The Melbourne International Arts Festival has renamed itself to the Melbourne International Arts Festival. In 1993, Menotti left Spoleto, New York, to take the Rome Opera's direction.

Despite these festival's assertions regarding Menotti's time, which included directing plays as well as operas, he maintained an active artistic career. Many of his later operas are aimed at children, including The Egg (1976), Chip and his Dog (1979), and his final opera The Singing Child (1993). The San Diego Opera made the opera La Loca (1979) as a 50th birthday gift for soprano Beverly Sills, and she appeared in San Diego and with the New York City Opera. The work tells the tale of Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain's daughter, and it was the last opera Sills to add to her repertory before retiring. The Washington National Opera gave Goya, written for Placido Domingo, its premiere in 1986. He used a traditional giovane scuola Italian style with Goya (1986). The Wedding Day, his last opera for adults, premiered in Seoul, South Korea, during the 1988 Summer Olympics under Daniel Lipton's baton.

Menotti was elected Artist Director of Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in 1992, a post he held for two years before being asked to resign due to problems with the theatre's leaders, which included Menotti's insistence on staging Wagner's Lohengrin. The American Choral Directors Association commissioned Gloria as part of the Mass commemorating the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize. Menotti's second film adaptation of Amahl and the Night Visitors was released in 1996.

At the age of 95 at Monte Carlo's Princess Grace Hospital Centre, Menotti died on February 1, 2007. He was buried in East Lothian, Scotland. The Festival of Two Worlds, which Menotti founded and oversaw until his death, has dedicated the 50th Anniversary of the Festival to his memory, which was arranged by his son Francis. Maria Golovin, Landscapes and Remembrances, Missa O Pulchritudo, Missa O Pulchritudo, The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore were among the festival's performers.

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