A melody is silenced

February 2, 2007 9:56 PM

Gian Carlo Menotti was, until his death at 95, the most often-performed contemporary opera composer. Among his works is the first opera composed for radio, the most popular Christmas opera, possibly the first opera in which a telephone plays a principal role (Poulenc's came more than a decade later), an opera about aliens, and a masterpiece about life under totalitarian rule (which was also the first time that suicide by gas oven made it to the stage). He ignored the fashion of atonality that held academia in thrall, and never veered from his lyrical style. He wrote his own libretti, which showed a mastery and love of language as deep as his musical talents. Some of his works were Broadway successes. And he created one of the finest music festivals [includes embedded music video]. He will be remembered.
posted by QuietDesperation (4 comments total)

My voice changed during rehearsals for a community theater production of _Amahl and the Night Visitors_. Depending on how I was feeling on any given day, I'd have to sing an octave higher or lower and just pray that my voice wouldn't crack on stage.

Is it odd to feel sad upon hearing of the recent death of someone you didn't realize had been alive?
posted by ErWenn at 11:07 PM on February 2, 2007

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posted by Pallas Athena at 2:19 AM on February 3, 2007

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posted by Mister Bijou at 3:45 AM on February 3, 2007

If you ever get a chance to catch a performance of The Death of the Cardinal of Brindisi -- a funereal commemoration of sorts of the Children's Crusade -- by all means do so.

Give me an enemy to kill, O Lord
But not a child to help!
posted by pax digita at 6:24 AM on February 3, 2007