Word: gian
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...mysterious court for an unspecified crime, chivied by a cold, incomprehensible bureaucracy until he is finally led away by two black-clad agents and stabbed to death. This macabre theme of man tortured by forces he does not understand was successfully used by Alban Berg in Wozzeck and by Gian-Carlo Menotti in his more popular Consul. Salzburg first-nighters, remembering Von Einem's earlier, impressive opera, Danton's Death (TIME, Aug. 18, 1947), came with high hopes. But by the final curtain, they found themselves less than spellbound, responded with lukewarm applause...
Still smarting from the critical response of his native Italy to his Medium and Consul in the past three seasons, Composer Gian-Carlo Menotti tried again last week; he staged his little Christmas TV opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, in Florence's Pergola Theater. Standing in the wings, Menotti felt reasonably confident this time: Leopold Stokowski conducted with a sure hand, a dressy international audience admired the handsome settings, stopped the show after a flashing dance sequence, and cheered up ten curtain calls for the cast at the end. Even the stage electrician admitted he liked...
Rubberfaced Ronny Graham, who wrote many of the sketches and songs, is almost consistently funny. After ridding himself of a tired bopster routine, he slides into his satires: sharp, clever jibes at Truman Capote, Arthur Miller, and Gian-Carlo Menotti. Musically, however, the top parody is Alice Ghostly's "Boston Beguine." In a baggy sweater and skirt, Miss Ghostly clatters about the stage in a primitive tango, screeching of her romance with a Harvard man in Boston's "native quarter." The fourth in a talented quarter is Robert Clary, a 14-ounce French import, who mugs through another bouncy tune...
Schippers has been a conductor, and one to reckon with, since he turned 20. Up to now, however, he has been known almost exclusively as a conductor of operas by Gian-Carlo Menotti. He led The Consul on Broadway for three months (in 1950) conducted The Medium when it was filmed in Italy, and led NBC's television performances of Amahl and the Night Visitors for the past two Christmases...
...thought that the next best thing to profits is prestige. Since 1949, NBC-TV has boosted its prestige with more than a dozen operas, mostly without benefit of sponsors. Last week No. 16 on the list went before the cameras: Czech Composer Bohuslav Martinu's The Marriage. Like Gian-Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors (TIME, Dec. 31, 1951), martinu's opera is short (55 minutes), written to be sung in English, and constructed with TV in mind every minute...