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Opera Synopses
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The ConsulMusic and Libretto by Gian Carlo MenottiPremiered March 1, 1950 at the Schubert Theater in Philadelphia. In the uncertain days following World War II, a story about a dissident who tries to speak against and escape from an oppressive regime was bound to have resonance. Even in the early part of the 21st century, immigration and oppression remains a hot-button topic. Yet, we could not have predicted a year ago when planning this production that countries throughout the Mid-East and Africa would explode against their oppressive and authoritarian regimes, bringing this issue of dissidence and protest into further relief. It seems that Menotti was prescient when he set the opera in "the present." Even the location, "somewhere in Europe" is vague and I suspect in light of recent developments, he would have considered a wider geography appropriate. The composer and librettist Gian Carlo Menotti was a child prodigy, born in 1911 to a coffee merchant. He wrote his first opera (libretto and music) when he was 11 and his formal music training at the Milan Conservatory a year later. Five years later, armed with a letter of introduction from Mrs. Arturo Toscanini he enrolled at the Curtis Institute where he met, among others, Samuel Barber, who would become his life partner. While at Curtis he wrote his first mature opera Amelia al Ballo (Amelia Goes to the Ball) a one act work which received its first performance there in 1937, conducted by Fritz Reiner. The following year it was given at the Metropolitan Opera where it scored a big success and led to an NBC commission for the first radio opera: The Old Maid and the Thief. A subsequent effort for the Met, The Island God, failed in 1942, and at that point Menotti moved his activities to Broadway. His next two operas The Medium and The Telephone were paired successfully at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in 1947. Menotti's first full-length opera was The Consul in 1950. Originally intended as a screenplay for MGM, the opera opened at the Schubert Theater in Philadelphia on March 1, 1950 and moved to Broadway two weeks later. It was a success both in theater and operatic terms. The composer/librettist was awarded both the Pulitzer Prize for Music and the NY Drama Critic's Circle Award for Best Musical in 1950. It ran for 269 performances on Broadway, moved to London and was performed in more than 20 countries. The decision to premiere the work on Broadway was significant and caused much comment. Critics and audiences were not certain what label to place on the piece. Was it an opera or music (or better: music drama)? The NY Times sent both their theater (Brooks Atkinson) and music (Olin Downes) critics to the opening. Their reviews were both positive. Brooks Atkinson opens his review with "...the obvious fact is that Gian Carlo Menotti has written a powerfully tragic musical drama about one aspect of life today, and the total impression is overwhelming." About the music Atkinson generally defers to Downes but states that "put the words and music together as Mr. Menotti wrote them, and you have a vibrant drama that contributes something fresh and illuminating to the thought of the modern world." Olin Downes tries to avoid a label for the work but refers to the music drama of the Florentine masters who created opera. According to the critic, "Mr. Menotti's is an opera of a special and highly dramatic character." He admires the composer's technique and handling of conventional operatic forms. Finally, he sums up the work: "Of this scorching opera, born of its times, emanating from the heart of an extremely gifted young composer of the theater, it can be said what excellent critics have said time and again and truly even of the very great composers... There were weaknesses of style, invention, structure side by side with overwhelmingly intensity and expressive power. The faults were there clear to behold, easily catalogued. Only, by the side of the achievement, they didn't matter." The composer's successes continued through the 1950s with Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951) and The Saint of Bleecker Street (1954, also a Pulitzer Winner), but although he would write another 18 operas after 1954, none would achieve the success of his earlier works. In later years, although he continued to compose, Menotti gave more time to the music festivals that he founded: The Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy in 1958, the American counterpart in Charleston, South Caroline in 1977, and an Australian counterpart in Melbourne from 1986-88. He was a sought-after stage director and forged significant partnerships with the Washington Opera and the Rome Opera. He died in 2007 at the age of 97. While Menotti's reputation suffered from accusations of derivativeness and eclecticism, it has moderated in recent years. Unfortunately his works haven't really regained the stage and this is a shame. The early works, and especially The Consul achieve an extraordinary synthesis of music and drama. As a composer Menotti deploys both melody and dissonance liberally, both at the service of his story. The set numbers, of which there are few, are skillfully knitted together with a very natural American recitative that neither seems coy or awkward but powerful and to the point. Richard Russell |
