Originally appeared May 2, 2001, in the Chicago Free Press.
It is a striking fact that at least half of the dozen most important American composers of the twentieth century were gay.
They include Charles Griffes, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, David Diamond, Virgil Thomson and Gian-Carlo Menotti. Except for the earlier Griffes, each made lasting contributions during American music's "Golden Age" (1935-1955) as well as later.
Of these, only Menotti (born 1911) remains alive and active as a musical entrepreneur, stage director and composer.
On July 7, he will turn 90.
Born in Italy, Menotti came to the United States at 17 to study composition at the Curtis Institute. Virtually the first person he met was 18-year-old Samuel Barber, "spoiled," he recalled, but "very handsome."
The two quickly became fast friends, partners, and creative stimuli for each other. For 30 years between 1943 and 1973 they lived together in a large L-shaped house in the countryside north of New York. After a painful separation, Menotti moved to Scotland, which is now his home.
Menotti is best known as an opera composer. He has written more than 20, of which the most popular is the familiar Christmas opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors" (1951).
Menotti said he did not set out to be an opera composer, but the surprise success of his early "Amelia Goes to the Ball" (1936) decisively changed his plans. The short, tuneful overture quickly became one of Menotti's "Greatest Hits."
Barber often teased - and irritated - Menotti by telling him that "Amelia" remained his best opera.
Later operas include "The Medium" (1947), "The Consul" (1950) and "The Saint of Bleecker Street" (1954). Each ran for several months on Broadway and the latter two won Pulitzer prizes. "The Consul" is generally regarded as his finest work.
Many of Menotti's more recent operas have been "children's operas," including fantasies like "The Bride from Pluto" ("She looks like a pinball machine," one character frets) and "Help, Help, the Globolinks," which pokes fun at modern music by having the invaders from outer space talk in electronic music, afraid of melodies.
Some might say that Menotti's best opera is Barber's "Vanessa" (1958), perhaps the greatest American opera, since Menotti wrote the libretto (the words) that Barber set to music.
Menotti once explained that he hums melodies for all his librettos as he is writing them and he hummed his own melodies for the words he wrote for Barber: "So there is a Menotti's 'Vanessa' floating around somewhere," he said.
Later, when Barber was writing his own music for the words Menotti would shout, "Oh no, it doesn't go like that!" and he said "Barber would get very angry at me."
But for all this, perhaps I am not alone in preferring Menotti's orchestral music. It is not as well known, but I think the music is better. It is not shaped and limited by words and it gives Menotti a chance to develop his musical themes instead of just moving from one to another.
Let me give a few examples.
- The Piano Concerto in F (1945) is an exuberant, light-hearted work, full of catchy tunes and rhythmic vitality. The middle section is a soulful melody that would fit well into one of Menotti's operas. The last section has a brief allusion to George Gershwin whose own earlier piano concerto is in the same key.
- The Violin Concerto (1952) is a melodic work throughout, with a haunting, unforgettable first section and another of Menotti's warmly lyrical songs as the middle section. I do not know why this piece is not more popular.
- The later Triple Concerto (1970) is lighter, playful piece more like 18th century concertos where different instruments alter and play each other's tunes.
- The ballet "Sebastian" (1944) has a melodramatic plot set in 17th century Venice, but the music is excellent. The gently rocking "Barcarole," is often played separately and counts as another of Menotti's "Greatest Hits."
- Finally, the fantasy-ballet "The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore" (1956) is a satire on mindless conformity and equally mindless artistic fads and innovations. For this little work Menotti wrote some of his most ingratiating chamber music.
The plot involves a poet who lives in a castle and takes a different fantastic pet for a walk each Sunday. The townspeople imitate him, callously killing their old pets and getting new ones each week.
When the poet is dying, the townspeople visit him only to find that all his own pets are still alive and surround him at his deathbed. "How could I destroy the children of my fancy?" he asks the shamefaced townspeople. "What would my life have been without their company?"
Barber, who died in 1981, asked that this last section be performed at his own funeral.
In a 1985 interview Menotti said that when he dies he would like to be buried beside Barber where there is a plot waiting for him.
Barber instructed that if Menotti is buried elsewhere, a marker should be put on the empty plot reading "To the memory of two friends."
"But," Menotti said, "I fully expect to be with him."