Word: menotti
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DIED. Gian Carlo Menotti, 95, Italian-born composer who reinvigorated American opera by bringing his lyrical, high-intensity works to mass audiences over the objections of critics who claimed his popular masterpieces were not sufficiently intellectual; in Monaco. Menotti, creator of the first opera written for radio, won the Pulitzer Prize for two of his operas, The Consul and The Saint of Bleecker Street. But he was best known for the 45-min. Amahl and the Night Visitors, a Christmas opera he wrote for TV. He continued his efforts to democratize the art in 1958 by founding Italy's influential...
...MENOTTI SONATA...
...been a grand season for American opera. First the New York City Opera and the Met produced Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men and Susannah, respectively, and now Menotti's The Consul--a tough, blunt cliff-hanger about political persecution--has finally made it to CD in a splendid live recording from last year's Spoleto Festival. The cast is solid; Richard Hickox's conducting, superb. Successfully premiered on Broadway in 1950 (yes, Broadway used to take such chances), The Consul is a little masterpiece of musical stagecraft whose grimly effective score and libretto haven't lost...
Still, Spoleto's future in the post-Menotti era appears to be secure. "The 'recipe,' as Gian Carlo used to call it, is intact," says Riley. Now it's time for the real home cooking to begin...
Most arts festivals in the U.S. are devoted to a single discipline: opera in Santa Fe, New Mexico; theater in Williamstown, Massachusetts; concerts at Ravinia, Illinois. What the country lacked, until Menotti came along, was a multidimensional festival that both took over a city and took advantage of its architecture and history. During the Menotti era, Spoleto USA benefited and suffered from his increasingly conservative and capricious tastes. There were some noteworthy premieres, such as Arthur Miller's play The American Clock, Martha Clarke's dance Miracolo d'Amore and the Philip Glass-Allen Ginsberg opera Hydrogen Jukebox...