Gian carlo menotti composer charles

Gian Carlo Menotti: Operatic composer and librettist

The dramatic operas of the Italian-born American composer, Gian Carlo Menotti, were enjoyed by thousands of television viewers who never went near an opera house.

Menotti was perhaps not a composer of the first rank, but he made effective use of music as an ingredient of drama; he wrote his own librettos, and found most of his subject matter in contemporary life.

Gian carlo menotti composer charles

Gian carlo menotti composer charles crossword

The medium

Menotti opera nyt

Menotti opera characters

Born at Cadegliano, in Lombardy in July 1911, Menotti studied as a boy at the Milan Conservatory, where he learned to play the piano and studied composition.

He went to the US at the age of 17, and completed his musical education at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.

It was there that he met the American composer, Samuel Barber, who was to become his closest friend.

International celebrity

He completed his first opera, Amelia Goes to the Ball, in 1933, and five years later it became a successful production at the Metropolitan in New York.

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