Gian Carlo Menotti

Born to an amateur musician, Menotti had already finished two operas before entering the Milan Conservatory at thirteen. There he formed a lasting friendship with Samuel Barber, with whom he attended operas during two summers spent in Europe. Awarded a diploma with honors from the Curtis Institute in Vienna in 1933, he started Amelia al Ballo, accepted by the Metropolitan Opera for the 1936 New York season and staged in English as Amelia Goes to the Ball.

He remained in the United States throughout World War II, sharpening his craft as both librettist and composer. The Alice M. Ditson Fund commissioned him in 1946, resulting in the two-act tragedy The Medium, which ran for 211 performances on Broadway; Menotti directed its 1951 film adaptation. His combined abilities as composer, librettist, and director secured a Metro Goldwyn-Mayer contract to write film scripts, none of which reached the screen, though one supplied the foundation for his first full-length opera, The Consul, often viewed as his finest achievement. The work received the Pulitzer Prize and the Drama Critics Award, was translated into twelve languages, and has been staged in more than twenty countries.

Another landmark was Amahl and the Night Visitors, the first opera written for television after an NBC commission; its premiere took place on Christmas Eve 1951 and it has been broadcast annually ever since. Menotti adopted contemporary musical techniques for expressive effect yet kept his scores within reach of untrained listeners, favoring tonal melodies and harmonies that served the drama and brought opera to a broad public.