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Also Available Gian Carlo MENOTTI Maria Golovin Violin Concerto LO M CAR EN N OT IA T G I

8.112023-24 8.111360-61

19 gs 54 din - 1958 Recor

Franca Duval • Richard Cross • Patricia Neway • Herbert Handt Orchestra and Chorus • Peter Herman Adler Tossy Spivakovsky, Violin 8.111370 8.111364 Boston Symphony Orchestra • Charles Munch

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MENOTTI CENTENARY EDITION dancing with her relatives. He asks her if she will come opens the lid and takes out the gun and hides it in one to him that night. She says she will try to, and pressed of his pockets. by Donato, says she will come for a few minutes. She 9 Maria rushes into the room, greeting Donato. He cannot give a time as it will be her birthday. He insists asks her if she knows what time it is. She apologises Gian Carlo that she comes at midnight so that he can be the first to that she could not get away earlier. Donato, becoming kiss her on her birthday. She promises to see him at angrier, accuses her of being ashamed of their love, MENOTTI midnight. She goes to sit on the sofa and he places and of wanting to hide it, in case others found out (1911-2007) himself at her feet, burying his head in her lap. about it. Maria tries to quieten him, for Trottoló’s sake. 7 Donato presses Maria to speak to her husband, and He says that he too loves Trottoló. She accuses him of then says he would like her to die, so no-one else might refusing to understand, to which he responds by saying have her. She replies that there is no love unless one that they cannot go on like this any longer. Maria Maria Golovin dares to lose the thing one loves. confirms that they must say good-bye. She promises to Opera in Three Acts • Libretto by the Composer leave the following day and that he will never see her Scene 3 again. Donato brandishes the gun and, running to the It is past midnight on the same day. Donato is sitting in back wall, bars her from leaving. Terrified, Maria tries Maria Golovin ...... Franca Duval (soprano) the rocking- chair. The Mother is on the sofa knitting. to avoid the aim of the gun. Realising that Donato is Donato ...... Richard Cross (bass-baritone) Occasionally she looks at Donato. On a table is a small aiming the gun to the sound of her steps, she stands birthday cake, a bottle of champagne and two glasses. frozen, her back to the audience. Donato says that she The Mother ...... Patricia Neway (contralto) 8 Agata ...... Genia Las (mezzo-soprano) Donato asks the Mother what time is it. She replies will never leave him for another man. If he cannot have that it is not quite one o’clock. Donato kisses the rose her, no-one else will. He calls to the Mother to help The Prisoner ...... William Chapman (baritone) which Maria has given to him. Agata comes in with a him to find Maria. The Mother rushes in, horrified. She Dr. Zuckertanz ...... Herbert Handt (tenor) tray, as if to clear the table. She asks if she may go to motions Maria to step out of the gun’s range. She then Trottoló ...... Lorenzo Muti (boy soprano) bed, saying it is two o’clock, to which the Mother takes hold of his hand and guides his aim in front of impatiently agrees. Donato, annoyed by his Mother’s him. She encourages him to kill Maria. He fires the gun Orchestra and Chorus deception and becoming impatient, gets up and begins twice into the empty space. Exhausted he sinks to his (Nino Antonellini, chorus master) to pace about the room. The Mother suggests that he knees, leaning his head against the Mother, who says (Pietro Carapellucci, tenor soloist) should show some understanding – how could Maria that Maria is his for ever now, and hands him the rose Peter Herman Adler leave her party with her husband there? Donato lying on the floor near them. She tells him to cast the suggests that she go to bed, and she leaves the room. rose on her, which he does. She then leads him out of After pacing up and down, he opens the small door in the room, saying that they must leave immediately and Recorded in Rome, 1958 the back wall, and the music of a small jazz band can that he is free now. After they have left, Maria picks up First issued on RCA Victor LM-6142 be heard. He listens and then closes the door. After the rose, holds it to her lips and bursts into sitting at the piano he goes back to the door and opens uncontrolled weeping. The voice of Zuckertanz is Reissue Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn it again. The music can be heard. He shuts the door and heard from upstairs calling for her. Still weeping, leans against it, overcome with frustration and despair. Maria slowly moves towards the stairway. Special thanks to Maynard F. Bertolet and James Miller for providing source material He asks God to help him. Rushing to the piano, he David Patmore

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Aldo. She realises what has happened, and admits her of the composers whom he likes most in music. The CD 1 77:38 & Maria … Yes, Donato 3:21 guilt. She calls for Agata to join them. Donato pleads Mother asks him to sing a song and he walks to the (Donato, Maria, Mother) with her to leave him alone; she agrees that they must piano reluctantly. He asks Maria to join them. He Act 1 * You know, I feel like a girl again 6:05 part but only after he learns how foolish and cruel he hands the music to the Mother to play, and sings with Scene 1 (Maria, Donato, Mother, Agata) has been. Maria hands Agata the open letter and asks Maria. 1 3 Introduction 2:09 Scene 2 her to read it aloud. Agata reads the letter, from Aldo While they are doing this, Agata appears in the ( who complains of Maria not responding to his letters. doorway, holding a telegram. They stop singing and (Orchestra) There you are! 3:21 2 One … two … three … Good heavens! 1:49 (Mother, Maria, Zuckertanz, Donato) Donato dismisses Agata. As she departs, Maria breaks the Mother asks Agata what she has: she replies that ) down in tears. the telegram is for Maria. Maria opens the telegram (Agata) Yes, I must leave you, Donato 3:43 ¡ Donato runs to Maria pleadingly, kneels at her feet and is obviously shaken by what she reads. She makes 3 This way, come in, come in! 3:07 (Maria, Donato, Agata) and embraces her. He asks for her forgiveness. As a great effort to hide her emotions. She tells them that (Mother, Zuckertanz, Donato, Maria) ¡ Maria. Forgive me 3:05 fireworks explode he tells her that she must never lie to her husband has been released. Donato gets up with a 4 This is a sad place to take a little boy! 2:17 (Donato, Maria, Prisoner) him. He urges her to kiss him but she breaks away, and start. Unaware of the significance of what has (Agata, Donato) ™ No, I do not understand a man like you 4:47 runs into the house. Alone on the terrace, lost and happened, Zuckertanz goes upstairs to tell Trottoló. 5 … and eight and nine and ten and hop la la! 1:48 (Prisoner, Donato) dejected, Donato gropes on his knees for his cane. The Realising that Donato wishes to be alone with Maria, (Mother, Agata) Prisoner appears and scornfully watches him. As he the Mother leaves the room. Maria and Donato 6 Who is there? Is there someone? 3:09 CD 2 65:55 moves towards the steps to the garden, Donato starts embrace. He asks her if she will tell him. She does not (Donato, Maria) and calls Maria’s name. The Prisoner identifies know. 7 Tell me the truth 4:33 Act 3 himself. ™ (Donato, Maria) Scene 1 The Prisoner sings contemptuously of Donato’s Scene 2 8 1 self-absorption while others suffer around him. Donato The same, a week later. It is late afternoon. Donato is I will pose for you as long as you like 3:22 Introduction 3:20 (Donato, Maria) (Orchestra) says that he is also in a prison. A searchlight rakes the standing alone on the terrace. Inside the room the 9 2 terrace, and whenever it does so the Prisoner hides Mother and Maria are unfolding a large table-cloth. … you must be careful not to play near the lake 4:02 I’m afraid this is all we have 3:25 himself until it passes. He tells Donato that it is the Behind them a manservant is placing napkins and (Mother, Zuckertanz, Maria, Donato) (Mother, Zuckertanz, Maria) searchlight from the prison camp. As he decides to glasses in a basket. From the open window the Scene 2 3 Quando di fuoco si fa la laguna 3:37 flee, the Prisoner gives Donato his gun. He departs into prisoners may be heard singing. 0 Aren’t you ready yet? 3:09 (Maria, Zuckertanz, Mother, Agata, Donato) the garden and Donato picks up the gun. Trottoló 4 The Mother suggests to Maria that now her husband (Donato, Agata, Mother) Scene 2 enters in his Pulcinella costume: he is illuminated by is back, she will want to leave soon. Maria replies that ! Let us sit by the fire 4:31 4 This is the largest one I have 3:38 the searchlight as he stands motionless, watching she had not planned on leaving, as her husband needs a (Donato, Maria) (Mother, Maria) Donato. rest. The Mother then expresses her dislike of Maria @ Ah Maria, Maria, if you could only see 6:13 5 You are unfair, Madame, and you know it 3:57 and says she would like her to leave. (Donato, Maria) (Maria, Mother, Donato) 5 CD 2 Tearfully Maria tells the Mother that while she # The prisoners … 2:49 6 Have you told him? 2:46 knows she should leave Donato, she finds it difficult to (Maria, Donato, Trottoló) (Donato, Maria) Act III do so. The Mother apologises for her harshness, and 7 Oh, how different is the world once confesses that she is very worried for Donato. She Scene 1 fears he is losing his reason. Donato is heard calling Act 2 I lie in your arms 5:52 The setting is the same room in Donato’s house as in from the terrace. The Mother leads him into the room. Scene 1 (Donato, Maria) $ What is it? 3:45 Scene 3 Act I. It is a month later, in September, the early He is pale and tense. As he enters, he stops abruptly, 8 afternoon. Maria and Donato are standing outside on sensing the presence of Maria. The Mother leaves them (Donato, Agata) What time is it? 6:34 the terrace. Within the room the Mother and Dr alone. % What is it? 1:51 (Donato, Mother, Agata) Zuckertanz are examining some sheets of music. 6 Donato asks Maria if she has told her husband about (Donato, Prisoner, Agata, Maria) 9 At last, my darling 5:21 1 Introduction (Orchestra) their relationship. She replies that she has not yet done ^ Oh I am so tired, so tired 4:41 (Maria, Donato, Mother, Zuckertanz) 2 As the Mother shows the music to Zuckertanz he so. Casually he mentions that she is having a party that (Maria, Mother, Donato, Zuckertanz) condemns it as romantic drivel. He tells her the names night, with a jazz band. She responds that she will be 8.111376-77 10 3 8.111376-77 8.111376-77 bk Menotti_Golovin_EU:8.111376-77 bk Menotti_Golovin_EU 24-07-2011 21:32 Pagina 4

Gian Carlo the garden. It is late afternoon in mid-summer, three Mother reflects on how much Donato has changed since months later. The terrace is empty. In the distance the Maria arrived. He tells her that Maria is not bound to shooting of rifles and sirens can be heard. Agata runs him, but he is to her – she has loved many people. He is MENOTTI out of the house and peers towards the distant hills. She never sure of anything with her. They sing together of (1911-2007) is followed by Donato. Donato’s plight. The mother curses Maria as she enters. $ Donato asks Agata what is happening and she tells Maria says she must work on Trottoló’s costume. The him that another prisoner must have escaped. The Mother offers to help her and goes into the house. Violin Concerto in A minor (1952) sounds of the siren and shooting die away. Donato sits & Donato is upset that Maria did not come to him the on a wicker chair near the house, and Agata on a small previous night. Maria responds that she tried but 0 I Allegro moderato 12:12 bench on the other side of the terrace, where a small Trottoló is always watching her. Donato asks her if she ! II Adagio 8:10 half-sewn Pulcinella costume has been left. She picks knows what it is like to wait a whole night – he wishes @ III Allegro vivace 7:06 up the black mask and starts to repair it. Donato asks her he had never met her. The Mother re-enters and what she is doing, and she replies that she is making a pretends to be unaware of what is going on. Changing Tossy Spivakovsky, Violin mask for Trottoló, for a children’s party to be held that his tone Donato tells Maria that there is a letter for her. Boston Symphony Orchestra • Charles Munch night next door. Donato gets up and walks nervously to Trying to keep himself under control, he asks if it might the end of the terrace. He comments that the others be from her husband. Maria says that it is from an old Recorded 8th November, 1954 in Symphony Hall, Boston should have returned from their picnic by now. Agata school friend. Donato believes that she is lying. The asks him what he will do when the husband [of Maria] Mother invites Maria to sit with her, and calls Agata to First issued on RCA Victor LM-1868 returns, and reports that a strange-looking letter arrived join them. this morning. Donato asks her where the letter came * As the sun reddens on the horizon, the three women Reissue Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn from. She taunts him and offers to steam the letter open reminisce in a mood of gentle melancholy, while for him, saying that she could be his eyes. He tells her to Donato compares them to the three fates unwinding the leave him alone. She continues to taunt him and tells thread of life. Producer’s Note him that the name Aldo was written on the back of the envelope. Scene 2 Menotti’s Maria Golovin premièred at the Brussels World’s Fair in August, 1958 and opened on Broadway three % As Donato asks Agata if this is the first time she has The same place at night. Trottoló, wearing the months later. In the interim, RCA recorded it in Rome with the original cast, presumably to have it ready for an seen this name, a prisoner runs onto the terrace, a gun in Pulcinella costume, stands on a stool in the middle of expected successful New York run. However, unlike the acclaim that greeted his earlier productions of The his hand. He points the gun at Donato. Agata tells him the terrace. Maria, the Mother and Zuckertanz stand Medium and The Telephone, The Consul and The Saint of Bleecker Street, the work met with a cool reception and that Donato is blind. She asks if he is the prisoner who around him in admiration. Donato sits alone in a far closed after only five performances. has just escaped and he replies that he is. The Prisoner corner. Perhaps the New York music journalists were put off by producer David Merrick’s insistence that the première tells them that they must hide him. Donato says that this ( As the women praise him, Trottoló runs towards be reviewed only by drama critics, or by the composer’s lampooning of them in the person of Dr. Zuckertanz; or is not possible because he might frighten the child and Zuckertanz. Maria tells him to hurry up as the fireworks perhaps Menotti’s romanticism had simply fallen out of fashion at that moment. Whatever the reason, with a half the old woman in the house. Donato tells Agata to take will start soon. The Mother, Zuckertanz and Trottoló go century of hindsight, modern listeners can now come to a better appreciation of the composer’s work here, as well him to his room, and agrees to find him a coat. down and disappear into the garden. Maria walks over as the accomplishments of his singers (not least the 22-year-old Richard Cross in the pivotal role of Donato, as well ^ Agata takes the Prisoner into the house. Maria is to Donato. She asks him if anything is wrong, and he as Menotti veteran Patricia Neway as his mother). heard calling from the garden. Donato runs excitedly to denies that there is. He realises that he has loved a Due to the work’s initial failure, RCA only released a monaural version of the set, even though it was likely the stairway. The Mother and Maria appear, Maria woman who does not exist. When she asks what he recorded in stereo; and the few copies that were sold ensured that it would become a rare and sought-after carrying a picnic basket. She says she is tired and that means, he replies that he loved someone whom he could collector’s item in the decades which followed. In preparing this first reissue of the recording in over fifty years, I the sun was too much for Trottoló, who has fallen trust. Now he knows that the world he saw was false. was lucky enough to be able to work from two near-mint copies of the original American red “shaded dog” label asleep. Zuckertanz enters, carrying Trottoló. The She asks him what he means and he accuses her of LP pressings, its only form of release. It remains the only recording ever made of the opera. (Some brief pitch Mother, Maria and Zuckertanz all urge Trottoló to go to being a liar, and of never loving him. fluctuations in the third act are inherent in the original master tape.) The Violin Concerto “filler” came from its first bed. The Mother tells Donato that Agata has found ) Wounded, Maria agrees that she must leave him, release, American plum “shaded dog” label pressings. another broken vase, for which Maria will have to pay. even though she does not know what she is accused of. Mark Obert-Thorn Donato tells her to stop counting the pennies. The Donato asks her about the letter she has received, from 8.111376-77 49 8.111376-77 8.111376-77 bk Menotti_Golovin_EU:8.111376-77 bk Menotti_Golovin_EU 24-07-2011 21:32 Pagina 8

her. Maria asks him if the drawings on the wall are his move towards the sofa. Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007) and he replies that they are, but now all he does is build ! Donato suggests that they sit by the fire. He asks cages for birds. The Mother pretends to sell them, but he Maria what colour she is wearing today, and she replies Maria Golovin • Violin Concerto knows she is lying. Donato gives her a cage, but tells blue. Maria asks if her lesson is ready and he hands her Maria Golovin remains the Cinderella among the After Brussels the opera was taken into RCA’s her to be careful, as the cage she takes already holds a a braille tablet. She then begins to read with her fingers. operas of Gian-Carlo Menotti. It came at the end of a recording studios in Rome, where the present recording prisoner. He asks her if he may touch her face. Very The message says ‘I love you’ and then that he is afraid. line of major successes for the composer, which it was was made. NBC, of which RCA was a part, presumably gently he touches her; at first intrigued and tense, she She asks him if this is true and he says that it is. She anticipated it would emulate. This extraordinarily rare anticipated the commercial as well as artistic success then pulls away, leaving Donato with his arms responds that the woman he loves cannot be her. first recording, made before the opera’s unsuccessful enjoyed by the composer’s two most recent operas, the @ outstretched. Donato replies that it is indeed her. He describes her New York production, has been unavailable for many televison opera Amahl and the Night Visitors of 1951, 9 The Mother re-enters with Trottoló. She tells him to voice in poetic terms. She tells him that she loves him. years. When taken together with the re-release by and The Saint of Bleecker Street of 1954, which won the go and get his tutor, Zuckertanz, and they both re-enter. He says she does not belong to him, but she replies that Naxos of recordings of other major stage works by Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1955 and the New York Zuckertanz complains that one of his records has been she is only his. He asks her if this is her first infidelity Menotti, such as The Consul (8.112023-24), The Drama Critics Circle award for Best Musical. After broken. The Mother offers him a cup of tea by way of and she replies that it is, but then goes on to tell him that Medium (8.111370), and The Saint of Bleecker Street Rome, the production was transported to New York, compensation. As they all sit at the tea-table, Donato she fell for a boy called Aldo the previous summer. (8.111360-61), it is now possible to place this major where it opened on Broadway on 5th November 1958, stands by the piano and then approaches the tea-table, Donato asks about him, and then if Maria still loves work, described by the composer himself as ‘his but ran for only five performances. One of the reasons dragging a chair behind him. Zuckertanz asks Maria him. Even though she says she never loved Aldo, unlucky work’, within the context of his overall operatic for its mixed reception may have been David Merrick’s what she is holding and she replies that it is Donato’s Donato accuses her of hiding something. He hints that output. insistence that it be viewed as ‘a musical drama’ and gift to Trottoló. Hearing Maria’s lie Donato stops in the she loves him out of pity, but she replies that she loves Although Maria Golovin is one of Menotti’s least therefore for it to be reviewed by drama, rather than middle of the room, pained, and then throws the chair him deeply. They embrace. It is growing darker and known operas, it did in fact enjoy three linked stagings music, critics, to the extent of even barring the latter across the room. The Mother asks him what has come outside the prisoners can be heard singing. and a complete studio recording before abruptly from the theatre. Menotti’s case would not have been # over him, and he replies that even innocent lies are Trottoló is heard outside in the garden and then peers vanishing from sight. The driving force behind its helped either by his parody of critics in the form of one impossible to bear and that somebody will lie to him. through the French window. Maria hurriedly throws commissioning was Samuel Chotzinoff, a close of the opera’s supporting characters, Dr Zuckertanz. herself against the back window to hide from Trottoló. associate of David Sarnoff, the dictatorial but highly Menotti himself was stunned by the decision to abandon Scene 2 Donato gropes his way to the window and opens it. He effective head of NBC and its affiliates. It was Sarnoff it. ‘I couldn’t believe it, Merrick told me that he loved The scene is the same as before. It is late afternoon one tells Trottoló that his mother is not there, and that she is who, before the Second World War, had created the the opera… that it had moved him to tears. Granted that month later. Agata, dressed to go out, is standing near upstairs. Although suspicious Trottoló runs off. Donato NBC Symphony Orchestra for Toscanini, following a the reviews were half-good and half-bad, I’m sure that the main entrance. Donato, sitting by the French closes the window and comes back into the room. Maria suggestion from Chotzinoff. The first performance of if Merrick would have allowed it to run for at least a full window, pretends to be working on one of the bird asks him if he thinks Trottoló saw them. He replies that Maria Golovin took place at the International week it would have survived.’ The reason for its cages. he is sure Trottoló did not, and tells her not to worry. By Exposition Pavilion Theatre on 20th August 1958 in abandonment seems to have been simply commercial. 0 Donato asks Agata if she is not ready to go out. She now hysterical, Maria insists on leaving, but only after Brussels, as part of Expo ’58. This was the first World’s To quote the composer again: ‘I was told that he got an replies that she is waiting for his Mother. She tells him Donato has extracted from her a promise to return Fair to take place since the San Francisco World’s Fair offer to produce a musical called La Plume de Ma that she knows what is preoccupying him and it is not tomorrow. She runs upstairs without looking at Donato, of 1940, and was thus the centre of considerable Tante, he needed a theater, so he closed Golovin… religion. In response to his question as to why he should who stands helplessly in the middle of the room. Donato attention. The opera received mixed notices, although Well, that, of course, gave the opera a black mark and not be happy, she replies that she [Maria] is not the realises that loving her will bring him suffering, and the public reaction seemed to be quite favourable. everybody thought it was a failure. For a long time woman for him. For her his interest is nothing more asks God for help. Sitting in the audience on the opening night was the nobody would perform it.’ Finally the opera was than another adventure – she has a past. Becoming Broadway producer David Merrick, who at that time broadcast by NBC Television on 8th March 1959, since violent Donato tells her to stop talking about Maria. The Act II was enjoying great success with stagings of plays and when it has been rarely performed, although it was Mother enters, and noticing Donato’s agitation, asks musicals in New York. He offered to produce the opera revived at the New York City Opera in 1959, in London him if he is all right. He replies that he is. The Mother Scene 1 on Broadway, and both Menotti’s publisher, Ricordi, in 1976 and at Menotti’s Spoleto Festival in 1991. and Agata depart. Sure that he is alone, Donato runs to The setting is the terrace overlooking the garden. At and NBC were highly supportive, believing that Productions have also been mounted at La Scala, Milan, the back wall and knocks against it with his cane, and a stage right, a wall of the villa, with French windows Merrick would give the opera preferential treatment. the Paris Opéra and Marseille, to generally enthusiastic responding signal is heard from upstairs. He prepares leading into the house. On the terrace garden furniture Menotti himself seeemed enthusiastic about working audiences. Menotti was not to write another opera until himself to receive Maria. The door slowly opens and is set. At the back of the terrace, amongst broken with a producer of Merrick’s stature and agreed to his the television opera Labyrinth of 1963, once again with Maria runs into his arms. They kiss and then slowly eighteenth-century statues, a stairway leads down into proposal. the support of Samuel Chotzinoff. 8.111376-77 85 8.111376-77 8.111376-77 bk Menotti_Golovin_EU:8.111376-77 bk Menotti_Golovin_EU 24-07-2011 21:32 Pagina 6

The dramatic crux of Maria Golovin is jealousy, The Sound of Music, for which she received a Tony Eugene Ormandy. The RCA recording by Tossy Act I driven by the infatuation of the central character, Maria, Award. Spivakovsky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a married woman whose husband is a prisoner of war, The title rôle in the first performances of Maria made in late 1954, is considered by Menotti’s Scene 1 with Donato, a blind young architect whose mother Golovin was taken by Franca Duval, who was born in biographer, John Gruen, to be the definitive 1 Introduction (Orchestra). owns the villa in which Maria spends the summer, with 1925 in New York of Italian parents. Following her performance of the work. Based on classical forms, the 2 Agata comments humorously on the arrival her young son Trottoló. Donato’s own emotional début in San Francisco, she appeared at La Scala, concerto is unpretentious, and was composed straight procession of the Mother. The Mother enters, followed obsession develops into jealousy and then madness, Milan, in 1950 in Sutermeister’s Raskolnikoff. She from the heart, in the romantic tradition. It is filled with by Maria Golovin, her son Trottoló and his tutor, Dr before a shattering conclusion. Menotti has commented continued to sing at La Scala for several years: her parts memorable themes, and is a superb vehicle for the solo Zuckertanz. revealingly about the central theme of the opera: ‘…in there included Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Blonde in violin, which throughout has primacy over the 3 The Mother introduces her son Donato to Dr Maria Golovin, I wanted to write purely about love. But Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and she substituted for orchestra, allotted a positively supportive rôle. Menotti Zuckertanz, who realises that he is blind. She then it’s very funny, because instead of writing about love – both Callas and Tebaldi as Violetta in La traviata. From himself expressed considerable affection for the Violin introduces Donato to Maria, who only realises that he is I write about jealousy. Like Proust, I cannot separate 1957 her career was focused upon France, with Concerto, commenting ‘I’m rather fond of this work’. blind when Dr Zuckertanz makes an explanatory love from jealousy… Like all jealous people, I followed appearances in Lille, Nice, Rouen, and Vichy, as well as gesture. Maria then introduces Trottoló to Donato. The the usual pattern. I hoped to be betrayed so that I could in Algiers (1957-58), and at the Opéra-Comique in Paris Mother offers to show Maria and Dr Zuckertanz round feed that horrible monster called jealousy, because (1959-60). She appeared as Tosca opposite Franco the house. They disappear up the stairway, leaving only jealousy is a hungry monster which, however, never Corelli in an Italian Television film of the opera made in Synopsis Trottoló and Donato. Both are a little frightened. dies of hunger... for a long time it was a great shadow in 1956. Her later years were devoted to Broadway Trottoló runs upstairs as Agata appears with the tea- my life.’ The dramatic style of the opera is similar to appearances and to teaching. CD 1 tray. that of the films which the Danish-German director The baritone Richard Cross, who sang the part of 4 Donato asks Agata if Maria is beautiful. Agata puts Douglas Sirk made during the 1950s for the Hollywood Donato, had a flourishing operatic career from the late The setting is a dilapidated room in Donato’s house, on Maria’s hat, fur coat and scarf and walks around like studio, Universal-International. In these an older 1950s to the 1990s. Born in 1935, he studied at Cornell an old villa overlooking a lake. The room is filled with a grande dame. Donato tells her to stop, and orders her woman (Jane Wyman or Lana Turner), in need of College before making his début at the first Spoleto ill-matched Victorian furniture. At stage left, by the to get the cake she is baking from the oven. romance, would fall for a sensitive younger man (Rock Festival of 1958 in the world première of Lee Hoiby’s fireplace, there is a low coffee-table in front of a large 5 The Mother comes down the stairs with Trottoló. She Hudson or John Gavin). Key examples of this genre The Scarf. Impressed, Menotti invited him to sing the sofa, a rocking-chair and an armchair. At stage right tells him he must bow in front of the Chinese statue. She include All that Heaven Allows of 1955 and Imitation of rôle of Donato in Maria Golovin, for which he won a there is an antiquated piano. In a corner there is an comments that Maria likes the house, and that they Life of 1959. Like Maria Golovin, these films were Theatre World Award after its Broadway première. architect’s drawing board, on which stand should have asked for a higher rent. Agata enters and critically dismissed at the time of release. More recently Between 1960 and 1965 Cross sang with numerous architectural models and reproductions of Greek announces that her cake is not rising. The Mother leads they have been favourably reassessed. opera companies throughout the United States, opposite statuary. Upstage left a dark corridor leads to the Trottoló into the kitchen, followed by Agata. Left alone, The original cast of Maria Golovin included as the artists of the calibre of Joan Sutherland, before joining entrance hall and the rest of the house. Backstage Donato fondles Maria’s scarf. Maria, re-entering, sees Mother the soprano Patricia Neway, who was one of the Frankfurt Opera, where he was active between 1966 centre, a small door opens onto a narrow winding him and is both embarrassed and moved. Sensing her the most outstanding of ‘first generation‘ Menotti and 1979. In 1974 he sang the title part in Verdi’s staircase, which leads to the apartment upstairs. At the presence Donato throws the scarf onto the sofa. interpreters, having already created the rôle of Magda Falstaff at Glyndebourne, followed by Sir Morosus in back of the room a large French window looks out 6 Donato asks who is there. Maria says how much she Sorel in The Consul in 1950. Between 1951 and 1966 Richard Strauss’s Die schweigsame Frau in 1977. He onto the garden terrace. Between the door and the likes the house and garden. They hear shouting in the she sang regularly at the New York City Opera, while returned to the United States as a member of the New window stands a porcelain statue of a Chinese distance and Donato tells her that there is a prisoners’ also singing in Europe. In 1952 she sang and recorded York City Opera from 1979 to 1984. Subsequently he mandarin. On the walls are a few architectural camp close by. Maria opens the French window and the the title heroine in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride at the undertook a number of challenging rôles such as Moses drawings of modern buildings, next to nineteenth- prisoners can be heard singing in the distance. Maria Aix-en-Provence Festival, with Carlo Maria Giulini in the New York City Opera’s 1990 production of century landscapes. Strewn about the room are empty tells Donato that her husband has been a prisoner of war conducting. Between 1952 and 1954 she sang regularly Arnold Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron. He continues to bird cages of different sizes and shapes. The for four years. She fears he is ill. at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. In 1955 she sang in the be active as a voice teacher in New York. atmosphere is oddly oppressive, as if those in the room 7 Donato asks Maria if she was looking at him as he world première of Raffaello de Banfield’s Una lettera Menotti’s Violin Concerto was composed in 1952 were imprisoned by its walls. It is mid-afternoon, a kissed her scarf. She replies that she was, and Donato d’amore di Lord Byron in New Orleans, with Astrid to a commission for the violinist Efrem Zimbalist, who cold day in early spring. As the curtain rises, Donato is tells her that he is lonely. Maria offers to read to him Varnay (available on Naxos 8.111326). Later she was then head of the Curtis Institute of Music, in sitting on the sofa, holding a small bird cage which he and to play the piano. She also paints, but will not ask created the rôle of the Mother Superior in the original Philadelphia. It was first performed in the same year by has just finished making. Agata looks out intently onto him to pose for her unless it is raining. Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Zimbalist and the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by the garden through the French window. 8 Donato says that he would be delighted to pose for 8.111376-77 67 8.111376-77