Gian-Carlo Menotti

Italian-born American composer, born July 7, 1911 in Cadegliano[?], Italy. He began writing songs when he was 7; at 11, he wrote his first opera (libretto and music), The Death of Pierrot He began formal training at Milan's Verdi Conservatory[?] in 1923. After his father died, he and his mother came to the United States, and he enrolled in Philadelphia's Curtis School of Music[?]. It was here that he wrote his first mature opera, Amelia al Ballo[?] (Amelia Goes to the Ball), to his own Italian text. (With the exception of this, The Island God[?], and The Last Savage[?] - all three written in Italian - all of Menotti's operas are in English. Each, including those three, is to his own text. He also wrote the libretti to two of Samuel Barber's operas, Vanessa[?] and A Hand of Bridge[?], as well as revising that for Antony and Cleopatra) Amelia was so successful that NBC commissioned an opera for radio; The Old Maid and the Thief[?] was the first such work ever written. Following this, he wrote a ballet, Sebastian (1944), and a piano concerto (1945); he returned to opera with The Medium[?] and The Telephone[?]. His first full-length opera, The Consul[?], was premiered in 1950; it won both the Pulitzer Prize for Music and the New York Drama Circle[?] Critics' Award for Musical Play of the Year (this in 1954). In 1951, Menotti wrote his beloved Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors[?] for NBC-TV[?]. In 1958, he founded the Festival of Two Worlds[?] in Spoleto, Italy[?]; he founded its companion festival, in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1977. He left Spoleto USA[?] in 1993 to take the helm of the Rome Opera[?]. In 1984 Menotti was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor[?] for achievement in the arts, and in 1991 he was chosen Musical America's[?] "Musician of the Year." In addition to composing operas to his own texts, on his own chosen subject matter, Menotti directs most productions of his work.

Menotti has written several ballets, and numerous choral works as well. He has also written a violin concerto, and a stage play (The Leper). It is in the field of opera, however, that he has made his most notable contributions to American cultural life. His operas include:

Amelia al Ballo[?] (1937)) The Old Maid and the Thief[?], radio opera (1939) The Island God[?] (1942) The Medium[?] (1946) The Telephone, or L'Amour à trois[?] (1947) The Consul[?] (1950) Amahl and the Night Visitors[?], television opera (1951) The Saint of Bleeker Street[?] (1954) Maria Golovin[?] (1958) Labyrinth, television opera (1963) The Last Savage[?], (1963) Martin's Lie, (1964) Help, Help, the Goloblinks![?], (1968) The Most Important Man, (1971) Tamu-Tamu, (1973) The Egg, (1976) The Hero, (1976) The Trial of the Gypsy, (1978) Chip and his Dog, (1979) Juana la Loca, (1979) A Bride from Pluto, (1982) The Boy Who Grew Too Fast, (1982) Goya, (1986) The Wedding (Giorno da Nozze), (1988) Goya [rev.], (1991) The Singing Child, (1993)