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Gian Carlo MENOTTI Also available The Consul • Amelia al ballo

LO M CAR EN N OT IA T G I

8.669019

19 gs 50 din - 1954 Recor

Patricia Neway • Marie Powers • Cornell MacNeil 8.669140-41 Orchestra • Lehman Engel Margherita Carosio • Rolando Panerai • Giacinto Prandelli Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan • Nino Sanzogno

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MENOTTI CENTENARY EDITION Producer’s Note

This CD set is the first in a series devoted to the compositions, operatic and otherwise, of Gian Carlo Menotti on Gian Carlo the occasion of his centenary in 2011. The recordings in this series date from the mid-1940s through the late 1950s, and will feature several which have never before appeared on CD, as well as some that have not been available in MENOTTI any form in nearly half a century. The present recording of The Consul, which makes its CD début here, was made a month after the work’s (1911– 2007) Philadelphia première. American Decca was at the time primarily a “pop” label, the home of Bing Crosby and Judy Garland, and did not yet have much experience in the area of Classical music. Indeed, this recording seems to have been done more because of the work’s critical acclaim on the Broadway stage than as an opera, since Decca had The Consul also recorded Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman with members of the original cast around the same time. Music Drama in Three Acts • Libretto by the Composer The recording venue was very dry and closely miked, with overloading common during loud passages, despite the engineers’ attempts at “gain riding”. In addition, the original recording sounds as though it had been made on lacquer discs, which had their own pops and clicks not related to the pristine 1960s pressings which were used for Magda Sorel ...... Patricia Neway (soprano) this transfer. When the lacquers were transferred to tape for LP release, the engineers apparently edited between The Mother ...... Marie Powers (contralto) alternate takes or backup lacquers with little regard for matching volume or surface hiss levels, even for passages The Secretary ...... Gloria Lane (mezzo-soprano) as short as a single word. Attempting to overcome all of these inherent flaws made for very difficult transfer work. John Sorel ...... Cornell MacNeil (baritone) No such problems were involved with the recording of Amelia al ballo, which was transferred from first edition The Secret Police Agent ...... Leon Lishner (bass) British LP pressings. Notwithstanding a couple instances of distortion during loud notes, it ranks with the Callas/Di Nika Magadoff ...... Andrew McKinley (tenor) Stefano recording of Pagliacci made three months later as one of the best sounding recordings EMI made at La Mr. Kofner ...... George Jongyans (bass-baritone) Scala. The Foreign Woman ...... Maria Marlo (soprano) A word is in order about cuts. Menotti was concerned that some passages involving primarily visual stage Vera Boronel ...... Lydia Summers (contralto) business would not translate well for the home listening audience, and had them cut from the recorded score in both Anna Gomez ...... Maria Andreassi (soprano) of the works featured here. The cuts are mostly innocuous and deal primarily with repetitive material. However, Assan ...... Francis Monachino (baritone) the one following “To this we’ve come” at the end of Act 2 of The Consul is dramatically significant, omitting as The Voice on the Record ...... Mabel Mercer (soprano) it does Magda’s fainting upon seeing the Secret Police Agent leaving the Consul’s office, and allowing the act to end on a note of defiant triumph at odds with what is actually happening in the story. Orchestra under the direction of Lehman Engel Mark Obert-Thorn

Recorded in New York City in April 1950 First issued on Decca DX-101

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¶ In a terzetto, all three reflect on the inexplicable ambulance. He then asks Amelia to explain what has CD 1 69:01 @ John, John, why did you bring me 4:04 happened. nature of love. What is right and what is wrong are (Magda, Mother) tricky questions to answer. No one knows why love º Amelia tells the chief of police that as she was comes and goes. Each calls upon their heart to guide preparing to go the ball a man (her lover) entered Act 1 them. Amelia asks her husband for the last time if he through the balcony with a pistol which he aimed at Scene 1 # It is the signal! 4:07 is going to take her to the ball. He says no, and her, demanding money. The lover denies this story 1 ‘Tu reviendras’ 3:15 (Magda, Mother, Secret Police Agent, Assan) furious, she smashes a vase on his head. The husband vigorously, and implores Amelia to speak of their (Voice on the Record, John, Magda, Mother) collapses, unconscious. Frightened at what she has love. She denies all knowledge of him. The lover is $ Mother! Why are you so still, Mother? 3:51 done, Amelia calls for help. The lover tries to revive handcuffed, while the ambulance-men arrive and take 2 Quick, John! The police! 5:48 (Magda, Mother) the husband. The two maids rush in, see what has away the husband on a stretcher. (Magda, Mother, Secret Police Agent) happened, fetch bandages and a basin, and place a ⁄ The chief of police tells her not to despair: her % Interlude 1:30 compress on the husband’s head. Amelia continues to husband will recover soon. But Amelia asks who will 3 Don’t move yet 3:09 (Orchestra) call for help. take her to the ball? The chief of police gallantly (Magda, Mother, John) • During an orchestral interlude neighbours and offers to do so. Realising that no-one can refuse the Scene 2 strangers, having heard Amelia’s cries, rush in, chief of police, Amelia begins once again to dress for 4 Now, O lips say goodbye 4:18 ^ What did you say your name was? 1:37 demanding to know what has happened. Seeing a the ball, as the lover is taken away by two policemen. (Magda, John, Mother) (Secretary, Anna Gomez, Vera Boronel, ¤ The chorus sings that Amelia will go to the ball body on the floor, they think Amelia must have Kofner) after all, and that the moral of the story is that if a committed a murder. 5 ª The chief of police enters. At first he thinks woman sets her heart on going to the ball, that is Interlude 1:02 Amelia’s lover is her husband, but the chorus corrects where she will go. Magnificently dressed, Amelia (Orchestra) & My charming ma’moiselle 7:13 him. He asks who is the man on the floor. Amelia leaves for the ball on the arm of the chief of police, to (Magician, Secretary, Anna Gomez, whispers to him, and, amazed by what she has said, he the cheers of the onlookers. Scene 2 Vera Boronel, Kofner, Foreign Woman) stands to attention and tells the chorus to summon an Keith Anderson 6 Next. Yes, what can I do for you? 2:14 (Secretary, Kofner) * Any news for me? 2:19 (Magda, Secretary) 7 Next … Buon giorno 3:40 (Secretary, Foreign Woman, Kofner) ( To this we’ve come 7:43 (Magda, Vera Boronel, Kofner, Secretary) 8 Next … May I speak to the Consul? 4:14 (Secretary, Magda) CD 2 75:18 9 In endless waiting rooms 3:36 (Vera Boronel, Anna Gomez, Magda, Act 3 Magician, Kofner) Scene 1 1 How often must I tell you, Mrs. Sorel 4:21 Act 2 (Secretary, Vera Boronel, Assan, Magda) Scene 1 0 What is the matter, little lamb? 2:01 2 Don’t forget to sign 2:22 (Mother) (Secretary, Vera Boronel, Magda, Assan)

! I shall find for you 3:19 3 Oh, those faces! 1:47 (Mother) (Secretary)

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4 Who are you? How did you get in? 2:12 7 Lo, death’s frontiers are open 4:42 Amelia al ballo (Amelia goes to the Ball) • Synopsis ( Amelia tells her husband that her lover is the (Secretary, John, Secret Police Agent) (Foreign Woman, Kofner, Anna Gomez, gentleman with the moustache who lives in the CD 2 apartment above. She sees him only at night when her Vera Boronel, Mother, John, Secretary, Magician, husband is asleep. Outraged her husband puts on his 5 Don’t be afraid, Mr. Sorel 2:44 Magda) 9 Orchestral prelude. top-hat and cloak, and tells Amelia that before going (Secretary) 0 The setting is the luxurious bedroom of Amelia, the to the ball he is going to have a chat with their 8 Mother, John, wait 2:34 wife of a wealthy citizen. Amelia stands in front of a neighbour with a pistol, and if Amelia still wants to Scene 2 (Magda, Mother, John, Magician, Chorus) mirror, while her two maids tighten her corset and go to the ball, they will go dancing while their 6 I never meant to do this 2:33 search for her fichu. Her beautiful ball dress lies on a neighbour nurses a broken skull. He leaves with his (Magda, Foreign Woman, Kofner, Anna Gomez, chair. A friend is sitting impatiently nearby. Amelia pistol at the ready, locking the door after him. Vera Boronel, Mother, John, Secretary) scolds the chambermaids, who offer her a necklace ) Amelia unsuccessfully tries to open the door. She and a flower. As her friend urges that they leave, opens the window instead and starts to take off her Amelia says that she is finally ready. jewels. She then runs to the window and calls to her ! Amelia and her friend sing a duet, suggesting that lover above, telling him that her furious husband is on when women go dancing love and honour may come his way to see him. to grief. ¡ Amelia sings that while men want possessions, all @ Amelia is still not quite ready – her fichu is still that women want are innocent experiences. She prays missing. Just as they are about to leave, Amelia’s that she may go to the ball. husband enters. ™ Amelia’s lover slides into the room on a rope, # The husband announces that they are not going to embraces her, and covers her with kisses. She urges the ball. He can only tell her the reason in private. him to leave but he refuses. After the friend and the maids have left, Amelia asks £ Amelia warns her lover not to be stubborn: her what it is that has caused this change of plan: has the husband is armed. Her lover gradually realises the coachman been drinking, is the grandfather dying, or predicament that he is in, and prepares to leave. does her husband have indigestion? However the rope has broken, and so her lover hides $ The husband explains that he happened to see in an alcove. among Amelia’s papers a passionate letter, signed ¢ Amelia’s husband enters: he has been unable to ‘Honey Bunny’. He would like an explanation. find the lover. Amelia reminds him that they are to go Amelia denies both his accusation of an amorous to the ball. Her husband reluctantly agrees, to keep encounter and all knowledge of the letter. her quiet. As she prepares herself, her husband notices % The husband reads the letter out loud: it is a the rope on the balcony, realises that the lover is in the passionate declaration of love to his wife. room and searches for him. Finding the lover, the ^ Crushed by the contents of the letter, the husband husband prepares to shoot him with his pistol. asks if she can still deny the letter. Amelia bursts into ∞ The pistol however jams. Now the lover prepares tears. The husband demands to know the truth and the to assault the husband, who suggests a calm name of her lover, while Amelia insists that she goes discussion. While husband and lover debate the finer to the ball. points of the situation, Amelia demands to be taken to & In a duet Amelia resists her husband’s entreaties to the ball. Both urge her to be quiet. The husband asks name her lover, while her husband warns her not to go the lover to explain how the indiscretion with his wife too far. came about. * Amelia suggests that she will tell her husband all § In very romantic language, the lover explains his he wants to know if he agrees to take her to the ball. propensity for love. The husband looks enviously at his After some initial hesitation her husband agrees, on rival. They are about to restart their discussion when his honour. Amelia once again demands to be taken to the ball. 8.112023-24 413 8.112023-24 8.112023-24 bk Menotti Amelia_EU 26-03-2010 9:41 Pagina 12

careful. Assan tells her that John may try to return, sits in front of the cooker and turns on the gas. Slowly having heard about his baby and his Mother. He is the light fades. As the walls also fade, the figures of desperate and wants to see Magda. Magda worries that Vera Boronel, the Secretary, Anna Gomez, the Foreign if John returns he will be arrested. As Assan and Woman, and Mr Kofner appear, forming a Ghost Magda sing of the dangers to John’s group if he Chorus, with John and the Mother standing behind Gian Carlo returns, the Secretary and Vera Boronel continue to them. process Vera’s papers. Magda has an idea – she goes to 7 The Ghost Chorus sings of the opening of Death’s MENOTTI the desk, writes a note, and then returns to her seat. frontiers, while the voice of the Police interrogates (1911 – 2007) 2 Magda hands the note to Assan. She tells him that Magda. She turns to see the Chorus, which advances the note will convince John not to return and that the slowly towards her. The Magician appears before the members of his group will be saved. Assan leaves with members of the Chorus and invites them to dance. the note. The Secretary gives Vera all of her papers and They start to dance and then continue to advance Amelia al ballo wishes her a happy journey. As Vera leaves she notices towards Magda. Magda hears the Mother’s voice and Opera buffa in One Act • Libretto by the Composer Magda’s pocketbook on a bench. The Secretary calls she confronts them: all the figures except John and the for Magda, while Vera leaves the pocketbook on the Mother disappear through the wall. The Mother invites Secretary’s desk. Magda to join her in death. The Mother and John Amelia ...... Margherita Carosio (soprano) 3 As the Secretary prepares to leave she laments the slowly fade away as the Secretary and Vera Boronel The Husband ...... Rolando Panerai (baritone) fate of all this who have to wait. John suddenly enters. appear saying it is the end. John appears and asks to The Lover ...... Giacinto Prandelli (tenor) 4 John asks the Secretary if she has seen Magda. She see their child. Magda tells him that the child is dead. The Friend ...... Maria Amadini (contralto) tells him that she has just left. He says he cannot follow He vanishes to be replaced once again by the Secretary her, and that he must stay in the office – the police are and Vera Boronel. The Mother and John reappear, The Chief of Police ...... Enrico Campi (bass) waiting for him outside. The Secretary gives John asking Magda if she is prepared. First Chambermaid ...... Silvana Zanolli (mezzo-soprano) Magda’s pocketbook, which he drops as he pulls out 8 Magda asks them to wait for her as she hurriedly Second Chambermaid ...... Elena Mazzoni (mezzo-soprano) his gun, hearing the police outside. The Secret Police collects some papers and stuffs them into her bag. The Agent rushes in and disarms John. John agrees to go Mother and John disappear, bidding Magda good-bye. with the police. Mr Kofner and the Foreign Woman appear separately, Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan 5 The Secretary urges John not to be afraid: she will gesturing Magda to follow them, and then disappear. (Chorus Director: Vittore Veneziani) speak to the Consul in the morning and will telephone The Magician appears, and guides Magda to the cooker Nino Sanzogno Magda. as he hypnotizes her. Magda sits down in exhaustion. The Magician disappears. All that can be heard is Scene 2 Magda’s breathing. As the telephone rings, the room is Recorded in the Teatro alla Scala, Milan in March 1954 restored to reality. Magda hears the telephone, and First issued on Columbia 33CX 1166 The Sorel’s apartment immediately afterwards. The tries to reach out for it. Her body falls slack over the phone rings. chair. 6 Magda enters, dazed but determined. She uses her Reissue Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn coat and John’s to close the crack below the door. She David Patmore Special thanks to Maynard F. Bertolet

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9 Orchestral prelude 4:24 ¡ Romanza: Vola intanto l’ora insonne 2:37 @ Magda asks John why he has brought her the will have her. The secretary tells her to fill in a form. (Orchestra) (Amelia) branches and stones, which the Secretary lifts from Anna wearily sits down next to Vera Boronel. Magda John’s hands and gives to Magda. She places them in a rushes in, and asks to see the Consul immediately. The 0 Stringi! Allaccia, allacia! 1:41 ™ Amelia! Amelia! 1:06 cupboard and returns with bread and, later, wine, Secretary tells her that she must wait her turn. (Amelia, First Maid, Second Maid, Friend) (Lover, Amelia) placing them on the table. John says that he has been & The Magician presents a bouquet of flowers out of hunted. Magda asks who the woman with him is. He thin air for the Secretary. As he performs various tricks ! Duettino: La notte, la notte è troppo breve 1:35 £ Contro me non porta offesa 1:27 tells her that she is his little sister. Magda, repelled by he introduces himself as Nika Magadoff. He asks for a (Amelia, Friend) (Amelia, Lover) her, wants John to send her away but he insists that visa, but the Secretary insists on his completing the they must welcome her. The Secretary gives John the necessary paper work. He hypnotizes all those waiting @ Sono pronto! Dammi i fiori 2:01 ¢ Non l’ho pescato in tempo 1:21 bread and wine. As Magda compares the wine to blood in the room and gets them to dance, as in a ballroom. (Amelia, Friend, Maids) (Husband, Amelia) and the bread to flesh, John embraces her. John asks to The Secretary demands to see his papers, and the see their child. As Magda draws back the curtain of the Magician searches frantically for them in his pockets, # Non si va! Non si va! 1:18 ∞ Ah! Cane, impara … 3:15 alcove, she sees a horrifying figure carrying a dead pulling out rabbits and exploding rockets as he does so. (Husband, Amelia) (Husband, Amelia, Lover) child. She screams, the figures vanish, the room returns He re-awakens those whom he has hypnotized, and to how it was, and the Mother enters. Magda tells her leaves, distracted. $ Amelia, Amelia! 2:10 § Romanza: Fu di notte, come in sogno 3:49 about the dream, and of her fear that something has * Magda asks the Secretary if there is any news for (Husband, Amelia) (Lover, Husband, Amelia) happened to John. A stone suddenly smashes the her. The Secretary locates her papers, which are not window. complete, and tells her that nothing can be done until % Romanza: ‘Amelia cara’ 2:23 ¶ Terzetto: Chi può saper 4:20 # Magda and the Mother recognize this as the signal all the papers are collected together. Magda accuses (Husband) (Amelia, Lover, Husband) from John. As they wonder what to do, the Secret her of lying. Police Agent enters. He tells her that the police are ( Magda sings bitterly of the terrible way in which ^ Osi ancora negar? 0:51 • Orchestral interlude / Che c’è? Che c’è? 1:49 aware that she is trying to get a visa from the bureaucracy is used to destroy life. For the first time (Husband, Amelia) (Chorus) Consulate, and asks for the names of John’s associates. the Secretary is moved. She goes into the Consul’s She vehemently tells him to leave. Assan the glass- office, and comes out promising Magda that she may & Duettino: No, no, no! Al ballo non andremo 2:03 ª Già capito 2:09 cutter enters as the Secret Police Agent leaves. The see him after the present visitor leaves. As this person (Husband, Amelia) (Chief of Police, Chorus, Amelia) Mother discovers that the child is dead. Assan tells departs, Magda recognizes him as the Secret Police Magda that John is in the mountains. She urges that he Agent and faints. * Ebbene, sì 1:04 º Seduta alla specchiera 2:40 should cross the frontier as soon as possible, and that (Amelia, Husband) (Amelia, Chorus, Police Chief, Lover) they will join him, knowing that this may not be true, The Mother shows Assan the dead baby. Assan leaves. CD 2 ( Il mio amante è quel signore 1:52 ⁄ Perché affligersi tanto? 2:07 $ Magda asks the Mother why she is so still and (Amelia, Husband) (Chief of Police, Amelia) realises that the baby is dead. The Mother weeps as she Act 3 realizes she will not see her son again and that he will Scene 1 ) Che disdetta! 2:18 ¤ Gioite, gioite, Amelia al ballo andrà 1:40 not see his baby. Magda places a candle by the dead It is several days later in the Consulate. Magda is (Amelia, Lover) (Chorus) baby’s cradle. sitting alone on one of the benches. The Secretary is at % Interlude (Orchestra) the filing cabinet. 1 The Secretary tells Magda that there is no point in Scene 2 her waiting: the Consul is not there and the office will A few days later, at the Consulate. The Secretary is close shortly. Vera Boronel enters. The Secretary tells searching for a file. The Magician and Vera Boronel sit her that her papers are almost ready. Vera signs all the on one bench, Mr Kofner and the Foreign Woman on papers as the Secretary authenticates them. Assan another. Anna Gomez is highly distracted. hurriedly enters and asks the Secretary if she has seen ^ The Secretary finds Anna Gomez’s file. Her permit Magda. Magda asks him if he has news of John. They has expired and she must leave, but no other country sit down together and Assan advises Magda to be 8.112023-24 611 8.112023-24 8.112023-24 bk Menotti Amelia_EU 26-03-2010 9:41 Pagina 10

The Consul • Synopsis typing. Mr Kofner and the Foreign Woman, an old peasant, wait to be summoned by the Secretary. Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007) 6 The Secretary summons Mr Kofner, but as many The Consul • Amelia al ballo (Amelia goes to the Ball) CD 1 times previously, his papers are not completely in order and he must return with them once more. While this The composer Gian Carlo Menotti continued the lyric successful at its first performance in Philadelphia in Act 1 dialogue is going on Magda enters, followed by Anna opera tradition of Puccini throughout his long life, 1937 for it to be presented at the Metropolitan Opera, Scene 1 Gomez. despite musical tastes moving in completely different New York, during the following season and for the The setting is the home of John Sorel, a shabby 7 The Foreign Woman is summoned by the Secretary. directions as the twentieth century progressed. Menotti National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to commission apartment in a large European city. When the curtain She speaks in Italian which Mr Kofner does his best to put his audience first, creating operas for radio and Menotti to compose the first radio opera, The Old Maid rises the room is empty, and the windows are open. translate. The Foreign Woman wants to go to her television, working in film, and founding major music and the Thief. This was broadcast in 1939 and was later 1 The words of a popular song being played on a daughter who is ill and to look after her grandson. The festivals in Europe, America and Australia. Although re-written for stage performance. Menotti’s next opera, gramophone in a café on a street outside can be heard. Secretary tells her that she must apply for a visa, which frequently the object of musical criticism, of critics The Island God, failed when presented at the Suddenly John staggers into the room. He drags himself may take several months to be granted. The Foreign themselves he once wittily commented ‘They often Metropolitan Opera in 1942. However, The Medium, to a chair and calls for his wife, Magda Sorel. She runs Woman is stunned by this information. The Secretary spoil my breakfast but never my lunch’. composed in 1946, ran for 211 performances on in, carrying their child, and is followed by John’s gives her an application, and Mr Kofner leads her away Mother. John tells Magda that he is hurt. She examines Menotti was born in 1911 in Cadegliano, Italy, a Broadway during 1947, in tandem with another, lighter, to help her fill it in. small town near Lake Lugano in Lombardy. The sixth work by Menotti, The Telephone. His skills as a him and asks the Mother for water and dressings. John 8 As Magda approaches the Secretary, the Magician of eight children, his father was a coffee merchant, and dramatist led to a contract with the film studio Metro- tells Magda that he has been shot by the police, having enters, followed by Vera Boronel. Magda asks to speak attended a secret meeting. The Mother laments their to the Consul but the Secretary tells her that no-one is his mother an active musician, who taught her children Goldwyn-Mayer to write screenplays. Although none of situation. allowed to do this. Magda explains what has happened to play the piano, violin and cello. By the time he was these was filmed, one of them did become an opera, The 2 The Mother alerts them to the imminent arrival of the to her husband John but the Secretary insists that she fill five Menotti was composing songs. His first opera, The Consul, which was inspired by the plight of individuals police. The two women help John into an alcove, hidden out a form. The Magician introduces himself to Vera Death of Pierrot, was written to be performed as a trapped in European totalitarian states after the Second by a curtain. Magda takes up her sewing, before Boronel, and asks if he may practice one of his tricks puppet show when he was eleven, and his second opera, World War. Opening in 1950, it was extremely frantically wiping away John’s blood-stains on the with her. based on Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid, successful: it ran for 269 performances on Broadway, floor. The Secret Police Agent rushes in, with two 9 As the sunlight slowly fades, the assembled was completed two years later. In 1924 the family and won both a Pulitzer Prize and a Drama Critics’ policemen who search the apartment. The Secret Police characters sing a quintet, contrasting the endless waiting moved to Milan where Menotti studied at the Verdi Circle Award. During the following year NBC Agent interrogates Magda as to the whereabouts of with freedom. The Foreign Woman goes out as the Conservatory of Music for three years, often visiting La commissioned Menotti to write an opera for it once John. In the face of her ignorance he threatens her curtain falls. Scala as well as developing a taste for the exotic. When again, this time the first opera for television, Amahl and through ‘her heart’, before leaving. 3 As Magda calls to John, the Police arrest one of their he was seventeen, he accompanied his mother on an the Night Visitors (Naxos 8.660919). This again was neighbours. John tells Magda he must leave the country unsuccessful trip to Columbia to try to restore the very successful and was re-broadcast annually until the Act 2 family coffee business. On their return in 1928, his mid-1960s and has become one of the most performed that night. She implores him to stay but to no effect. He Scene 1 mother deposited him at the Curtis Institute of Music in of twentieth-century American operas. 1954 saw the advises her to seek help from the Consulate the It is late afternoon, one month later, in the Sorel’s following day. She must not seek help from his friends. apartment. Philadelphia. Here, armed with a letter of introduction first performance of The Saint of Bleecker Street, which He will send a signal when he has news for her: a stone 0 The Mother is playing with Magda’s baby. from Toscanini, he commenced study with Curtis’s enjoyed critical if not commercial success, and won a will be thrown through the apartment window, and ! As the baby goes to sleep she sings a lullaby. Magda distinguished professor of composition, Rosario second Pulitzer Prize for the composer. Assan will come to replace the broken glass. enters, watches the Mother and then falls asleep at the Scalero, who finding him talented but lacking in By this time the majority of Menotti’s significant 4 John, Magda and the Mother sing of farewell. John table. As the Mother retires to the alcove, Magda’s discipline, set him a course of counterpoint and studies works had been written, but he nonetheless continued to leaves and the curtain falls. nightmare begins. The light changes to an eerie glow, of early music. While at Curtis Menotti met another be quite prolific as a composer. The opera Maria 5 Interlude (Orchestra) the doors open and John enters, bloodstained and composer, Samuel Barber, who was to become his Golovin, the product of a further commission from bandaged, carrying branches and stones. Behind him is companion in life. NBC, was first performed at the Brussels International Scene 2 the Secretary, looking both voluptuous and evil. Magda Menotti began to compose his first mature opera, Exposition in 1958, and in the same year the The setting is the waiting room of the Consulate. The goes towards them and then fetches a cloth for the table. Amelia al ballo (Amelia goes to the Ball) while staying Metropolitan Opera staged Barber’s Vanessa (Naxos Secretary’s desk is in one corner. The Secretary is busy As she spreads the cloth, John approaches her. in Austria with Barber in 1933. It was sufficiently 8.669140-41), with a libretto by Menotti. Also in 1958 8.112023-24 10 7 8.112023-24 8.112023-24 bk Menotti Amelia_EU 26-03-2010 9:41 Pagina 8

Menotti founded the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the for the benefit of the Institute, she agreed on condition (Subsequent distinguished interpreters of this rôle have which undoubtedly prompted the American Decca purpose of which was to bring together established and that Menotti’s new opera should be paired with the included another major Italian dramatic soprano of the Record Company (no relation to the English company young artists. This was followed by several more Milhaud as a double bill. Reiner was at first reluctant to 1950s and 1960s, Virginia Zeani, who sang the part to of the same name) to record the original Broadway operas: yet another one for NBC entitled Labyrinth; Le agree to this proposal, but eventually Mrs Bok prevailed acclaim at the Florence May Festival of 1972 with the cast. Amazingly this recording has never been reissued dernier sauvage, which was staged at the Opéra- and Amelia al ballo went on to be the hit of the evening. conductor and close colleague of Menotti, Thomas on compact disc until this present edition on Naxos. Comique in Paris and at the Metropolitan Opera; and Mrs Bok then financed a showcase performance of it in Schippers.) The Consul opened on Broadway in March Unquestionably one of Menotti’s finest works, The Martin’s Lie commissioned by the Columbia New York, the outcome of which was the strange 1950 immediately after a brief try-out in Philadelphia, Consul successfully brings together the composer’s Broadcasting System (CBS) and first performed at the pairing of Amelia with Richard Strauss’s Elektra in and attracted rave reviews. The senior American critic command of stage-craft and his facility for writing Bath Festival in England. In 1973 Menotti and Barber performances at the Metropolitan Opera in March 1938. Olin Downes commented ‘The Consul is as music that is highly atmospheric to create a compelling sold the house which they had shared in Mount Kisco, The critic of the New York World-Telegram, Pitts contemporary as the cold war, surrealism, television, dramatic whole. New York, and Menotti settled in Scotland with his Sanborn, described the new work as ‘an agreeable [and] the atom bomb.’ It was this sense of timeliness David Patmore adopted son, Francis. He founded a second Spoleto example of modern Italian opera, vivacious and tuneful’ Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1977, to be and reported that the conductor ‘Ettore Panizza kept the followed by a third one, based in Melbourne, Australia, orchestra fizzling like champagne. A capacity audience in 1983. Two later operas were inspired by specific acclaimed the work.’ In The New York Times the critic performers: La Loca (1979) was written as a farewell Harold Taubman succinctly analysed the reasons for the vehicle for Beverly Sills, and Goya (1986) was work’s success: ‘His music has the style and glitter of composed for Plácido Domingo. In 1984 Menotti was the operatic composers of his native land. The turn of a awarded a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime phrase here and there bears the stamp of distinguished achievement in the arts. His administrative efforts Italian forebears, but the essential vitality, ingenuity and continued well into old age: in 1996 he took the helm at laughter are the composer’s own… Mr. Menotti knows the Rome Opera for several years. He died at the age of how to toss off a shapely tune. He knows how to whip 95 in 2007, in Monte Carlo, where he had a home. up tumultuous climaxes. He knows how to write for the The origins of Amelia al ballo go back to when voice.’ Menotti and Barber were staying in Vienna, in a house Menotti was extremely sensitive to the ‘spirit of the belonging to a Czech baroness. Taken with her two times’ and few of his works reflect this more accurately guests from America, she frequently dined with them than his first full-length opera, The Consul. It tells the and regaled them with tales of life in ‘Old Vienna’, and story of a family’s attempts to gain the necessary visas especially the balls which were (and still are) a feature to leave a bureaucratic police state. Composed at the of Viennese social life. Menotti was also taken with an end of the 1940s, after the war-time American-Soviet elaborately decorated porcelain dressing-table that alliance had been replaced by the Iron Curtain and by a stood in the baroness’s bedroom, and this and the tales national fear of the effects of Communism, best of Viennese life became the direct inspiration for his expressed by the McCarthy hearings, this opera has first opera. After he had returned to America, he played been admirably described by the American writer Barry excerpts from the newly-composed work to the founder Singer as ‘a moody three-act exercise in noir-drenched of the Curtis Institute, Mary Curtis Bok, who decided paranoia that captures the Cold War zeitgeist of 1950’. that it should be produced on stage. So when Fritz Menotti had initially wanted to cast the young Greek- Reiner, then on the staff of the Curtis Institute, asked American soprano Maria Callas in the central rôle of her to finance a production at the Philadelphia Academy Magda Sorel, indicating the level of dramatic intensity of Music of Darius Milhaud’s opera Le Pauvre Matelot that he was seeking, but the producer vetoed this idea.

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! I shall find for you 3:19 3 Oh, those faces! 1:47 (Mother) (Secretary)

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MENOTTI CENTENARY EDITION Producer’s Note

Recorded in New York City in April 1950 First issued on Decca DX-101

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Gian Carlo MENOTTI Also available The Consul • Amelia al ballo

LO M CAR EN N OT IA T G I

8.669019

19 gs 50 din - 1954 Recor

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G R E A T

O P E R A

R E C O R D I N G S

2 CDs NAXOS Historical MENOTTI: The Consul • Amelia al ballo 8.112023-24 Time Playing 2:24:19 MONO Act 1Act 1I 31:18 37:43 Act IIIComplete Opera 52:02 23:16 ADD 9 ( 8 ¤ - - - - 8.112023-24 CD 1The Consul 1 0 CD 2 69:01 The Consul 1 9 75:18 Amelia al ballo , cast a month Broadway was made with the original (Amelia goes to the Ball) was an instant hit.(Amelia goes of This recording critic Harold Taubman as possessing ‘the style and glitter of the ‘the style as possessing Taubman critic Harold The Consul Gian Carlo Gian (1911 – 2007) (1911 MENOTTI The Consul The Amelia al ballo Amelia al ballo The New York Times York The New Recorded in New York City in April 1950 City in York in New Recorded Orchestra under the direction of Lehman Engel under the direction Orchestra Recorded in the Teatro alla Scala, 1954 Teatro Milan in March in the Recorded Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala,Chorus and Orchestra Milan • Nino Sanzogno www.naxos.com Reissue Producer and Restoration Engineer:Reissue Producer Obert-Thorn Mark photo:Cover Gian Carlo Menotti (Private Collection) after the work’s Philadelphia première in 1950, Philadelphia première after the work’s CD début. its make and here This 2-CD set is the first in a series devoted to Gian Carlo Menotti’s compositions on the to Gian Carlo Menotti’s first in a series devoted This 2-CD set is the occasion of his centenary before in 2011. never which have will include several The recordings on CD,appeared fifty years. nearly for form in any not been available and some that have Described by operatic composers of his native land... his native operatic composers of but the essential vitality, the and laughter are ingenuity own’, composer’s Menotti’s first full-length opera, Menotti’s Magda Sorel...... Patricia Neway The Mother...... Marie Powers SorelJohn ...... Cornell MacNeil Amelia...... Carosio Margherita The Husband...... Rolando Panerai The Lover ...... Prandelli Giacinto

All rights in this sound recording, artwork, texts and translations reserved. Unauthorised public performance, broadcasting and copying of this compact disc prohibited. ൿ & Ꭿ 2010 Naxos Rights International Ltd. Made in Germany

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