Gian Carlo Menotti
(July 7, 1911 - living) Italy - U.S.A.
Opera composer
 Gian Carlo was born in Cadegliano, near Varese, Italy. At the age of 7, under the guidance of his mother, he began to compose songs, and four years later he wrote the words and music of his first opera, The Death of Pierrot. In 1923 he began his formal musical training at the Verdi Conservatory in Milan. Following the death of his father, in 1928 his mother took him to the United States, where he was enrolled at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music.
His first mature work, the one-act opera buffa, Amelia Goes to the Ball, was premiered in 1937, a success that led to a commission from the National Broadcasting Company to write an opera especially for radio, The Old Maid and the Thief, the first such commission ever given. After the premiere of his Piano Concerto in 1945, Menotti returned to opera with The Medium, shortly joined by The Telephone, both enjoying international success.
 The Consul, Menotti's first full-length work, won the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle award as the best musical play of the year in 1950. A second Pulitzer Prize was received for The Saint of Bleecker Street in 1954. By far Menotti's best-known work is the Christmas classic Amahl and the Night Visitors, composed for NBC-TV in 1951.
Menotti writes the text to all his operas, the original language being English in every case, with the exception of Amelia Goes to the Ball, The Island God, and The Last Savage, which were first set to Italian words. Recent operas include The Singing Child and Goya, written for Placido Domingo and given its premiere by The Washington Opera. Menotti's most recent vocal works are a Gloria, written as part of a composite Mass celebrating the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize, For the Death of Orpheus, with a premiere by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra led by Robert Shaw in November 1990, and Llama de Amor Viva, premiered in April 1991
 1958 saw the opening of Menotti's own festival, the "Festival of Two Worlds", in Spoleto, Italy. Devoted to the cultural collaboration of Europe and America in a program embracing all the arts, the Spoleto Festival has gone on to be one of the most popular festivals in Europe. The festival literally became "of two worlds" in 1977 with the founding of Spoleto USA in Charleston, South Carolina, which he led until 1993 when he became Director of the Rome Opera.
In 1984 Menotti was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement in the arts. He was chosen the 1991 "Musician of the Year" by Musical America, inaugurating worldwide tributes to the composer in honor of his 80th birthday. His music has been published by G.Schirmer since 1946.
In the USA he met his partner, gay American composer Samuel Barber, one year his helder. They were lovers for 30 years, up to Barbers' death in 1981. Menotti has also composed commissioned works for gay choruses.
 Operas:
- The Death of Pierrot (1922)
- Amelia Goes to the Ball (1937)
- The Old Maid and the Thief (1939)
- The Medium (1946)
- The Telephone (1947)
- The Consul (1950)
- Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951)
- The Island God
- The Last Savage
- The saint of Bleeker Street (1954)
- The Singing Child (1993)
- Goya (1986)
Vocal works:
- Gloria
- For the Death of Orpheus
Ballet:
Source: Stonewall Society - http://www.stonewallsociety.com, et alii
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