Gian Carlo Menotti

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Lore & Background

Menotti was born in Cadegliano-Viconago, Italy, near Lake Lugano and the Swiss border, the sixth of ten children. A child prodigy, he began writing compositions at age seven, and at eleven wrote both the libretto and music for his first opera, The Death of Pierrot, performed as a home puppet show. He began formal training at the Milan Conservatory in 1924 at age 13, and spent three years there, frequently attending operas at La Scala. After his father's death, he moved with his mother to Colombia in a futile attempt to salvage the family's coffee business, and in 1928 she enrolled him at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music. There he met fellow student Samuel Barber, who became his partner in life and profession. His first mature opera, Amelia Goes to the Ball, premiered at the Curtis Institute in April 1937 and was a critical success, staged by the Metropolitan Opera in 1938. The success earned him a commission for the radio opera The Old Maid and the Thief (1939), one of the first such works. He wrote the libretti of all his operas, rejecting atonality and the Second Viennese School in favor of expressive lyricism influenced by Puccini and Mussorgsky. His opera The Medium (1946) and The Telephone achieved international success on Broadway, with The Medium made into a motion picture in 1951 that competed in the 1952 Cannes Film Festival. Menotti taught music composition on the faculty of the Curtis Institute from 1948 to 1955. He served as artistic director of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma from 1992 to 1994, and directed operas for the Salzburg Festival and the Vienna State Opera. He also wrote ballets, choral works, chamber music, orchestral music including a symphony, and stage plays. Notable non-operatic works include the cantata The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi (1963) and Landscapes and Remembrances (1976) for the United States Bicentennial.

Reader's Guide

Gian Carlo Menotti's significance lies in his ability to create operas that appealed to popular taste while maintaining dramatic integrity. His works include the classic Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951) and two Pulitzer Prize-winning works, The Consul (1950) and The Saint of Bleecker Street (1955), all of which enjoyed successful runs on Broadway. He further developed the verismo tradition of opera in the post-World War II era, rejecting atonality and the Second Viennese School in favor of expressive lyricism that carefully sets language to natural rhythms to highlight textual meaning and underscore dramatic intent. His founding of the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto in 1958 and Spoleto Festival USA in 1977 established enduring cultural institutions. In 1986 he commenced a Melbourne Spoleto Festival in Australia but withdrew after three years. Menotti's legacy includes over two dozen operas, all with his own libretti, and a body of choral, orchestral, and ballet music.

Did You Know?

• Menotti was a child prodigy who began writing compositions at age seven and wrote both libretto and music for his first opera, The Death of Pierrot, at eleven.
• He met Samuel Barber at the Curtis Institute of Music in 1928, and Barber became his partner in life and profession.
• His opera The Medium was made into a motion picture in 1951 that competed in the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.
• Menotti founded the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto in 1958 and its American counterpart, Spoleto Festival USA, in 1977.
• He wrote the libretti of all his operas, and three of his operas also had Italian language libretti penned by the composer: Amelia Goes to the Ball (1937), The Island God (1942), and The Last Savage (1963).