This year would have been the 100th birthday of Gian Carlo Menotti, an American composer, librettist and teacher of Italian descent.
He was the sixth of eight children born to Alfonso (a coffee merchant) and Ines Menotti. When he was four years old he began to compose songs an activity his mother encouraged. At the age of eleven he composed his first opera, The Death of Pierrot, writing both the music and libretto. In 1923 he began his formal musical training at the Milan Conservatory.
When his father died, his mother went to Columbia in an attempt to save his father's coffee business, she took Gian Carlo with her and enrolled him at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 1928. He brought with him a letter of introduction from Arturo Toscanini's wife. While there he studied composition under Natale Rosario Scalero. Among his fellow students were Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber, who would later become his partner in both life and work. After graduation, Samuel and Gian Carlo bought a house in Mount Kisco, New York, which they named "Capricorn." They lived there for nearly forty years.
While at Curtis, Gian Carlo composed his first mature opera, Amelia al Ballo (Amelia Goes to the Ball) with his own libretto. It is one of three operas he composed to an Italian text, all his other operas have an English libretto, the other two being Ilo e Zeus (The Island God) composed in 1942 and L'ultimo selvaggio (The Last Savage) composed in 1963. Reportedly he destroyed all copies of the score for Ilo e Zeus and had even refused a revival request. L'ultimo selvaggio received it's premier at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, where it was ridiculed by French music critics. It was revived in 1981 and again more recently in 2011 by the Santa Fe Opera where critics gave the work positive reviews and even called for a reexamination of the work. Like Wagner before him, in addition to writing all the libretti for his operas, he directed most productions as well. His most successful works were written in the 1940's and 50's. In addition to writing his own libretti, he wrote the libretti for Barber's operas Vanessa and A Hand of Bridge as well as revising the libretto for Anthony and Cleopatra.
In 1958, he founded the Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of Two Worlds) annual Summer music festival held in Spoleto, Italy. His intention was to have the two worlds of American and European culture facing each other in the event. Nearly twenty years later he would found The Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina. A third festival in Melbourne, Australia but after only three festivals Gian Carlo withdrew and took the naming rights with him, since 1990 this festival has been known as the Melbourne International Arts Festival.
OPERA
Amelia al Ballo was so successful, it led to a commission by NBC for an opera specifically for radio. Gian Carlo Menotti composed The Old Maid and the Thief on this commission. It is a one act opera which "tells a twisted tale of morals and evil womanly power." The work was received with great enthusiasm by music critics. He revised it slightly a couple of years later so that it could be performed on stage. It is modeled after 18th century Opera Buffa. The opera consists of 14 scenes, each with a narrated 'announcement' before it.
The inspiration for the story came from a visit he made to Samuel Barber's family. He found in West Chester, Pennsylvania; a quaint, cute town which actually covered up a plethora of secrets about people and places.
It is known for two arias: "What curse for a woman, is a timid man (Steal me, sweet thief)," and "When The Air Sings of Summer".
What curse for a woman, is a timid man
(2001 Spoleto festival, Renee Fleming, Orchestra conducted by Richard Hickox)
After The Old Maid and the Thief he composed aforementioned Ilo e Zeus, The Medium, The Telephone and The Consul.
The Medium (a two act dramatic opera) was commissioned by Columbia University and received it's first performance there on May 8, 1946. It received it's professional premier in a double bill with Menotti's The Telephone a year later. In 1948, a live production took place on television and in 1951, a film version was released directed by the composer.
The closing ten minutes of ACT 1
The Telephone, a one act comic opera, was commissioned by the Ballet Society. It's plot revolves around a gentlemen who wishes to propose to his girlfriend before he goes on a trip, however he is prevented from doing that because she is constantly on the telephone. After several attempts to ask her, he leaves in order to get to his train. But he makes one last attempt... he calls her. The other name for this opera is L'amour à trois.
This performance is from the 2006 DVD, with Carole Farley and Russell Smythe in the title roles with José Serebrier conducting the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In addition, there was a film version from 1968 in German.
The Consul was his first full length opera and it was premiered in 1950 at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia. This opera won him the first of two Pulitzer Prizes in music (the other being The Saint of Bleeker Street).
This is a 1960 televised performance that is available on DVD.
After The Consul, Menotti wrote what is possibly his most famous opera: Amahl and the Night Visitors. This opera was also a commission of NBC, this time for television.
It was broadcast live on Christmas Eve, 1951 as part of Hallmark Hall of Fame, it was the first opera specifically composed for television. For those wanting scenes from this opera, you'll have to wait for my Christmas Music diaries in December, I'll include it in 'Classical Christmas'.
After Amahl, he wrote The Saint of Bleeker Street, Maria Golovin, Labyrinth and many more.
One of my favorite works of Menotti's is The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore. I had the pleasure of singing this work about seven years ago and absolutely enjoyed the libretto and music. The work was commissioned in 1956 by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation and was premiered that same year at the Library of Congress Coolidge Auditorium. It is a "madrigal fable" for chorus, ten dancers, and nine instruments.
The comedic plot is a melancholy attack on the "indifferent killers of the poet's dreams", slavish social conformity and the ease with which the "unfashionable" is discarded. The three creatures in the story are allegorical representations of the three stages of the poets life. The unicorn represents youth and beauty, the gorgon: middle age and success, and the manticore: the shy loneliness of old age. The work is modeled after 16th century Italian "madrigal comedy" or commedia harmonica, a precursor to opera. Menotti resisted calling this a ballet even though it calls for dancers.
The work consists of 12 madrigals which tell a continuous story and six interludes performed by a chamber ensemble of flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, cello, double bass, harp and percussion. Upon it's premier, the work received critical praise for its music, especially in relation to the final madrigal. Menotti, himself described it:
It is the most deeply and personally felt of anything I've written. It is something I would like for my own funeral.
This madrigal was sung at the funeral of Samuel Barber in 1981.
The Unicorn
The Gorgon
The Manticore
The Mob
I will continue the exploration of Gian Carlo Menotti's music sometime in November with the Missa 'O Pulchritudo' and Piano Concerto. In the meantime, if you love Beethoven like I do check out Dumbo's two diaries on his Fifth Symphony, here and here. And don't forget to tune in this Thursday for Beethoven's Seventh.
Next Week: Music for Halloween
Coming Weeks: Liszt: Either the Dante Symphony or the Faust Symphony, Andreas Hammerschmidt, Lesser known ? (lesser known works by a well known composer TBD), Bernstein Symphony #3 Kaddish, Music for Christmas (4 separate diaries); Gian Carlo Menotti: Missa 'O Pulchritudo' or Piano Concerto in F