Gian Carlo Menotti was born on July 7, 1911, and died on February 1, 2007. He was an Italian composer, writer of opera scripts, director, and playwright. He is best known for writing 25 operas. Although he often said he was an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship and never officially became an American citizen. He was one of the most performed opera composers in the 20th century. His most successful works were created in the 1940s and 1950s. Menotti was influenced by composers Giacomo Puccini and Modest Mussorgsky. He helped develop the realistic style of opera after World War II. He did not use certain modern musical styles, such as those from the Second Viennese School. His music is known for its expressive and lyrical qualities, which match the natural rhythm of language to highlight meaning and drama.

Like Richard Wagner, Menotti wrote the scripts for all his operas. He created the classic Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951) and more than 20 other operas meant to appeal to audiences. Many of his operas were performed successfully on Broadway, including The Consul (1950) and The Saint of Bleecker Street (1955), which both won Pulitzer Prizes. All his operas used English scripts, but three also had Italian scripts written by him: Amelia Goes to the Ball (1937), The Island God (1942), and The Last Savage (1963). In 1958, Menotti started the Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of the Two Worlds) in Spoleto, Italy. He also created Spoleto Festival USA in 1977. He began a festival in Australia in 1986 but stopped after three years.

Menotti also composed music for ballets, choral works, chamber music, orchestral pieces, and stage plays. Notable works include the cantata The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi (1963) and Landscapes and Remembrances (1976), which described his memories of America for the U.S. Bicentennial. He also wrote a Mass for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore called Mass for the Contemporary English Liturgy.

Menotti taught music composition at the Curtis Institute of Music from 1948 to 1955. He was the artistic director of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma from 1992 to 1994. He also directed operas for organizations like the Salzburg Festival and the Vienna State Opera.

Early life and education: 1911–1933

Gian Carlo Menotti was born in Cadegliano-Viconago, Italy, which is near Lake Lugano and the Swiss border. He was the sixth of ten children of Alfonso and Ines Menotti. His father was a businessman, and his mother was a talented amateur musician. The family was financially prosperous because his father and uncle ran a coffee exporting company in Colombia together. He learned to play the organ from his aunt LiLine Bianchini, who had unusual experiences. He was deeply religious as a young person and was greatly influenced by his parish priest, Don Rimoldi.

Menotti's mother, who played an important role in his musical development, sent all her children to music lessons in piano, violin, and cello. The family performed chamber music together and with other musicians in the evenings at their home.

A child prodigy, Gian Carlo began writing music compositions at age seven. At eleven, he wrote both the libretto and music for his first opera, The Death of Pierrot. This was performed as a home puppet show, a hobby that became important to Gian Carlo after his older brother Pier Antonio introduced him to puppetry. He began formal musical training at the Milan Conservatory in 1924 when he was 13 years old. While at the conservatory, he wrote his second opera, The Little Mermaid. He spent three years studying there and often attended operas at La Scala, which deepened his lifelong love for opera.

At 17, Menotti's life changed greatly after his father's death. After his father died, Ines Menotti and Gian Carlo moved to Colombia to try to save the family's coffee business, but this effort did not succeed. In 1928, she enrolled him at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia before returning to Italy. With a letter of introduction from the wife of Arturo Toscanini, Gian Carlo studied composition at Curtis under Rosario Scalero. That same year, he met Samuel Barber, a fellow student at Curtis, who became his life partner and shared profession. As a student, Menotti often stayed with the Barber family in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He and Samuel Barber also spent summers in Europe, attending operas in Vienna and Italy while studying at Curtis.

Early career: 1933–1949

After graduating from the Curtis Institute in the spring of 1933, Menotti and Barber spent the following summer in Austria. During this time, Menotti began writing the libretto for his first mature opera, Amelia Goes to the Ball (Amelia al Ballo), using his own Italian text while staying in a small village near Lake Wolfgang. The work was inspired by a meeting with the Baroness von Montechivsky in Vienna earlier that summer. For the next four years, Menotti focused on further musical studies in Europe, including composition lessons with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He did not complete the music for Amelia until returning to the United States in 1937.

The Curtis Institute presented the world premiere of Amelia Goes to the Ball at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia in April 1937, with Margaret Daum performing the role of Amelia. Later that year, professional performances followed at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore and the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City, with soprano Florence Kirk in the title role. The opera received strong praise and was later staged by the Metropolitan Opera in 1938, with Muriel Dickson as Amelia. The first international performance took place in Sanremo, Italy, the same year. Amelia al ballo remains the only one of Menotti’s operas published in its original or "complementary" Italian libretto (alongside an English version). It reflects the traditional romantic Italian style, influenced by composers such as Puccini, Wolf-Ferrari, and Giordano.

The success of Amelia Goes to the Ball led to a commission for Menotti to write a radio opera for the NBC Radio Network, The Old Maid and the Thief, one of the first such works. It premiered on radio on April 22, 1939, with Alberto Erede conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra during the orchestra’s 1938–1939 season closing. A slightly revised version was staged by the Philadelphia Opera Company in 1941. The New York Philharmonic performed parts of the opera in 1942, led by conductor Fritz Busch. The first New York stage production occurred in 1948, presented by the New York City Opera in a double bill with Amelia Goes to the Ball, both directed by Menotti.

In 1943, Menotti and Barber bought a home called "Capricorn" in Mount Kisco, New York, north of Manhattan. This house served as their artistic retreat until 1972. Many of their major works were created there. They often hosted gatherings at Capricorn with other well-known composers, artists, musicians, and intellectuals. American author William Goyen and artist Joseph Glasco were frequent visitors.

Menotti’s third opera, The Island God, was written for the Metropolitan Opera, where it premiered in 1942 but received poor reviews. Menotti believed the work failed because the libretto focused too much on complex philosophical ideas, making it difficult for audiences to connect with. He later said this experience taught him "how not to write an opera." In 1943, he wrote his first dramatic play without music, A Copy of Madame Aupic, which was not staged until 1947 in New Milford, Connecticut. Other works from this time include a ballet, Sebastian (1944), and a Piano Concerto in F Major (1945). Menotti returned to opera with The Medium in 1946, commissioned by the Alice M. Ditson Fund. It premiered at Columbia University and later had a successful run on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1947. This production also included Menotti’s fifth opera, the short one-act The Telephone, or L’Amour à trois, as a prelude. These operas became Menotti’s first internationally successful works, receiving acclaimed performances in Paris and London in 1949 and touring Europe in 1955 under the United States Department of State. The Medium was also made into a film in 1951, starring Marie Powers and Anna Maria Alberghetti, and competed in the 1952 Cannes Film Festival. It is widely considered one of the best examples of opera on film.

During this time, Menotti also composed music for the 1948 ballet Errand in the Maze for the Martha Graham Dance Company and wrote two screenplays for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which were never made into films. In 1948, he began teaching music composition at the Curtis Institute, a position he held until 1955. His notable students included composers Olga Gorelli, Lee Hoiby, Stanley Hollingsworth, Leonard Kastle, George Rochberg, and Luigi Zaninelli.

Middle career: 1950–1969

The 1950s were the most successful time for Menotti’s work, starting with his first full-length opera, The Consul. This opera premiered on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1950. It won both the Pulitzer Prize for Music and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Musical Play of the Year (awarded in 1954). American soprano Patricia Neway played the main character, Magda Sorel, and won the Donaldson Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1950. Menotti wanted to give a role to Maria Callas, who was not yet famous, but the producer refused. The Consul is now part of the standard opera performances and has been performed in over a dozen languages and more than 20 countries.

In 1951, Menotti wrote his Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors for NBC. This work was inspired by a painting by Hieronymus Bosch called Adoration of the Magi (c. 1485–1500). It was the first opera ever written for television in America and first aired on Christmas Eve, 1951, with Chet Allen as Amahl and Rosemary Kuhlmann as his mother. The opera became so popular that its broadcast became an annual Christmas tradition. It has also been performed by many opera companies, universities, and other groups and is one of the most frequently performed operas of the 20th century. This work remains Menotti’s most popular.

Menotti won a second Pulitzer Prize for his opera The Saint of Bleecker Street, which premiered at the Broadway Theatre in 1955. This opera also received the Drama Critics' Circle Award for best musical and the New York Music Critics' Circle Award for best opera. Set in modern-day New York, the opera explores the conflict between the physical and spiritual worlds. After its New York run, the opera was performed at La Scala and the Vienna Volksoper and was recorded for BBC Television in 1957. This was followed by The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore (1956), a "madrigal fable" for chorus, ten dancers, and nine instruments. Based on a 16th-century Italian madrigal comedy, the work was commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation and premiered at the Library of Congress in 1956. It was later staged by the New York City Ballet with dancers Nicholas Magallanes and Arthur Mitchell in 1957.

While working on The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore, Menotti wrote the libretto for Barber’s most famous opera, Vanessa, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1958. That same year, Menotti’s opera Maria Golovin premiered at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. Commissioned by Peter Herman Adler and the NBC Opera, the production moved to the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway in 1959 and was also filmed for a nationally televised broadcast on NBC. The cast included Neway, Ruth Kobart, Norman Kelley, William Chapman, and Richard Cross, and remained the same throughout.

Menotti founded the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, in 1958. His creative output slowed as his role as director of the festival took up much of his time. He wrote the libretti for Barber’s one-act opera A Hand of Bridge and Lukas Foss’s Introductions and Good-byes, both of which premiered together at the Festival of Two Worlds in 1959. He later revised the libretto for Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra (1966). Albert Husson adapted Menotti’s first dramatic play without music, A Copy of Madame Aupic (1943), into a French-language play that premiered in Paris in 1959. Music critic Joel Honig served as Menotti’s personal secretary during the late 1950s.

1963 was a busy year for Menotti. His television opera Labyrinth premiered by the NBC Opera Theatre. Unlike Amahl and the Night Visitors, this opera was not meant to be performed on stage and used special camera effects unique to television. That same year, the opera The Last Savage premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris and received a lavish production at the Metropolitan Opera in 1964. Although criticized by French and American press, the opera was well received in Italian opera houses in later years. Also in 1963, Menotti’s cantata The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi, about the Children’s Crusade of 1212, premiered at the Cincinnati May Festival and received good reviews.

In 1964, Menotti wrote a chamber opera, Martin’s Lie, commissioned by CBS for American television. Although not originally planned for the stage, the opera premiered in a live theatrical performance on June 3, 1964, at the Bristol Cathedral for the opening of the 17th annual Bath International Music Festival. The opera was later filmed with the same cast for television under the direction of Kirk Browning and broadcast nationally by CBS on May 30, 1965, for its United States premiere.

In 1967, Thomas Schippers succeeded Menotti as director of the Festival of Two Worlds, though Menotti remained president of the festival’s board of directors for several more decades. That same year, Menotti’s song cycle Canti della lontananza premiered at Hunter College, performed by soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, for whom the work was written. He composed music for the 1968 production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet at the Théâtre National Populaire, directed by Michael Cacoyannis. In 1969, the children’s opera Help, Help, the Globolinks! premiered at the Hamburg State Opera and was later performed at the Santa Fe Opera and the New York City Opera the following year.

Later career: 1970–2007

In 1970, Menotti decided to end his long romantic relationship with Samuel Barber. Barber had struggled with depression and alcoholism after receiving harsh criticism for his 1966 opera Antony and Cleopatra. This criticism affected his creativity and his relationship with Menotti. Barber had started spending long periods alone at a chalet in Santa Christina, Italy, and visited Capricorn less often. Tensions between Menotti and Barber grew, leading Menotti to end their romantic relationship and sell Capricorn in 1970. Capricorn was sold in 1972, and the two men remained friends after their relationship ended.

In 1972, Menotti bought Yester House, an 18th-century estate in the Lammermuir Hills, East Lothian, Scotland. He lived there until his death 35 years later. While living there, he joked that his Scottish neighbors called him "Mr. McNotti."

In 1974, Menotti adopted Francis "Chip" Phelan, an American actor and figure skater he had known since the early 1960s. Chip and his wife later lived with Menotti at Yester House.

In 1970, Menotti’s second drama without music, The Leper, was first performed in Tallahassee, Florida, on April 24, 1970. His opera The Most Important Man was commissioned by the New York City Opera and premiered at Lincoln Center in 1971. This opera focused on racial tensions in America and featured a central Black hero, but most critics did not praise it. Menotti, however, believed it was one of his best operas, comparable to The Consul and The Saint of Bleecker Street. His opera Tamu-Tamu premiered in 1973 at the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago as part of the IX Congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences.

The year 1976 was especially productive for Menotti, with several premieres commissioned to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The first was a nine-part cantata titled Landscapes and Remembrances, which premiered on May 8, 1976, in a performance by the Bel Canto Chorus and Milwaukee Symphony in Milwaukee. The piece was filmed for national broadcast on PBS and is Menotti’s most personal work, based on his own memories and experiences in America. On June 1, 1976, the Opera Company of Philadelphia performed the world premiere of the comedic opera The Hero (1976), which satirized American politics, particularly the Watergate scandal. On August 4, 1976, the Philadelphia Orchestra presented the world premiere of Menotti’s Symphony No. 1 ("Halcyon Symphony") at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, conducted by Eugene Ormandy.

In 1977, Menotti founded Spoleto Festival USA, a companion event to his Spoleto Festival (the other of its Two Worlds), in Charleston, South Carolina. Each summer, the festival attracts nearly half a million visitors. These festivals aimed to bring opera to a wider audience and helped launch the careers of artists such as singer Shirley Verrett and choreographers Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp. In 1986, Menotti expanded the concept to a Spoleto Festival in Melbourne, Australia. He served as artistic director from 1986 to 1988 but later withdrew, taking the naming rights with him. The Melbourne Spoleto Festival is now known as the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Menotti left Spoleto USA in 1993 to become the director of the Rome Opera.

Despite the demands of these festivals, which included directing plays and operas, Menotti remained active in his artistic career. Many of his later operas focused on children, both as subjects and performers, including The Egg (1976), The Trial of the Gypsy (1978), Chip and his Dog (1979), A Bride from Pluto (1982), The Boy who Grew too Fast (1982), and his final opera The Singing Child (1993). The San Diego Opera commissioned the opera La Loca (1979) as a 50th birthday gift for soprano Beverly Sills. She performed the work in San Diego and with the New York City Opera. The opera tells the story of the daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain and was the last piece Sills added to her repertoire before retiring. In 1986, Menotti’s opera Goya, written for Plácido Domingo, premiered with the Washington National Opera. With Goya (1986), Menotti used a traditional Italian style. His last opera for adults, The Wedding Day, premiered in Seoul, South Korea, in 1988, during the Summer Olympics, conducted by Daniel Lipton.

In 1992, Menotti was appointed artistic director of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, a position he held for two years before resigning due to conflicts with the theater’s managers over his insistence on staging Wagner’s Lohengrin. In honor of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize, the American Choral Directors Association commissioned Gloria as part of a mass celebrating the occasion. In 1996, Menotti directed his second filmed version of Amahl and the Night Visitors.

Menotti died on February 1, 2007, at the age of 95, at Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco, where he had a home. He was buried in East Lothian, Scotland. In June and July 2007, the Festival of Two Worlds, which Menotti founded and led until his death, celebrated its 50th anniversary by dedicating the event to his memory, organized by his son Francis. Menotti’s works performed during the festival included For the Death of Orpheus, Two Spanish Visions, Muero porque no muero (Santa Teresa D'Avila), Oh llama de amor viva! (San Giovanni della Croce), and Missa O Pulchritudo.

Musical style and critical assessment

Gian Carlo Menotti was influenced by composers Giacomo Puccini and Modest Mussorgsky. He helped develop the verismo style of opera after World War II. Menotti avoided atonal music and the style of the Second Viennese School. His music is emotional and melodic, using natural speech rhythms to make the words and drama clear. Menotti explained that atonal music is too serious and cannot express happiness or humor. He wrote music for small groups of musicians, using light and open arrangements. His melodies were easy to remember, often using repetition and simple scales. In his operas, short solo singing parts were used to keep the story moving, while dialogue-like singing used natural speech rhythms for clarity. In 1964, Menotti wrote:

Although Menotti mainly used the verismo style, he sometimes used modern musical techniques when they helped tell the story. For example, in The Last Savage, he used 12-tone music to mock modern society. In Help, Help, the Globolinks!, he used electronic music to represent aliens. In The Consul, a long, tense chord was used during a character's suicide. Even in his traditional music, Menotti sometimes broke common rules by using similar chords in a row.

People had mixed reactions to Menotti’s work. His early operas, such as Amelia Goes to the Ball (1937), The Medium (1946), and Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951), were popular and well-reviewed. Music critic Winthrop Sargeant praised Menotti for combining music and theater skillfully. However, Joseph Kerman criticized Menotti in 1956, calling his work unimportant and weak. Kerman later changed his opinion in 1988.

Kerman’s harsh review marked the start of a complicated relationship between Menotti and critics. In the 1960s, critics favored modern styles like serialism over Menotti’s traditional verismo. Many saw his work as outdated or overly dramatic. This negative view lasted into the 1980s but changed as people grew more interested in neo-romanticism. In 2007, after Menotti’s death, music critic Peter Dickinson wrote:

Honors

In 1984, Menotti received a Kennedy Center Honor for achievements in the arts. In 1991, he was named Musical America's "Musician of the Year." In 1997, he was awarded the Brock Commission by the American Choral Directors Association. In 2010, the main theater in Spoleto was renamed Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti to honor his role as the festival's creator and guiding force.

Publications

Vocal music scores from his works:

• Amahl and the Night Visitors: Vocal Score. G. Schirmer Inc., 1986. ISBN 0-88188-965-2.
• The Telephone: Vocal Score. G. Schirmer Inc., 1986. ISBN 0-7935-5370-9.
• The Medium: Vocal Score. G. Schirmer Inc., 1986. ISBN 0-7935-1546-7.
• Mass for the Contemporary English Liturgy. G. Schirmer Inc., 1990.