Gian Carlo Menotti (1911 - )
Gian Carlo Menotti was born on 7 July 1911, in Cadegliano, Italy. At the
age of 7, under the guidance of his mother, he began to compose songs,
and four years later he wrote the words and music of his first opera, The
Death of Pierrot. In 1923 he began his formal musical training
at the Verdi Conservatory in Milan. Following the death of his father,
his mother took him to the United States, where he was enrolled at Philadelphia's
Curtis Institute of Music. There he completed his musical studies, working
in composition under Rosario Scalero.
His
first mature work, the one-act opera buffa, Amelia
Goes to the Ball, was premiered in 1937, a success that led
to a commission from the National Broadcasting Company to write an opera
especially for radio,
The Old Maid and the Thief,
the first such commission ever given. His first ballet, Sebastian,
followed in 1944, and for this he wrote the scenario as well as the score.
After the premiere of his Piano Concerto
in 1945, Menotti returned to opera with The Medium,
shortly joined by The Telephone, both
enjoying international success.
The Consul, Menotti's first full-length
work, won the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle award
as the best musical play of the year in 1954. By far Menotti's best-known
work is the Christmas classic Amahl and the Night
Visitors, composed for NBC-TV in 1951.
Menotti writes the text to all his operas, the original language being
English in every case, with the exception of Amelia
Goes to the Ball,
The Island God,
and The Last Savage, which were first
set to Italian words. Recent operas include The
Singing Child (1993) and Goya
(1986), written for Plácido Domingo and given its premiere by The
Washington Opera. Menotti's most recent vocal works are
Jacob's
Prayer (1997), a commission from the American Choral Directors
Association, Gloria, written as part
of a composite Mass celebrating the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize,
For
the Death of Orpheus, with a premiere by the Atlanta Symphony
Orchestra led by Robert Shaw in November 1990, and Llama
de Amor Viva, premiered in April 1991. He has also recently
written a trio for the Verdehr Trio, which received its world premiere
at the Spoleto Festival on Menotti's 85th birthday in July 1996.
In addition to the numerous operatic works, Menotti has enriched the
artistic world with ballets, including Errand
into the Maze, and
The Unicorn,The
Gorgon, and the Manticore; Pastorale
for Piano and Strings (1934); Poemetti,
a suite of piano pieces for children (1937); The
Hero (1952), a song on a text by Robert Horan; and Canti
della Lontananza, a cycle of seven songs (1967).
1958 saw the opening of Menotti's own festival, the Festival of Two
Worlds, in Spoleto, Italy. Devoted to the cultural collaboration of Europe
and America in a program embracing all the arts, the Spoleto Festival has
gone on to be one of the most popular festivals in Europe. The festival
literally became "of two worlds" in 1977 with the founding of Spoleto USA
in Charleston, South Carolina, which he led until 1993 when he became Director
of the Rome Opera. He continues to direct opera at Spoleto and elsewhere,
including a Boheme at the Washington Opera in November 1996. His
1996 Spoleto production of Amahl has been filmed for commercial
release.
In 1984 Menotti was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement
in the arts. He was chosen the 1991 "Musician of the Year" by Musical
America, inaugurating worldwide tributes to the composer in honor of
his 80th birthday. His music has been published by G. Schirmer since 1946.