"When will they understand that theater is in my music?"

International study conference on Gian Carlo Menotti, on the centenary of his birth

to edited by Jacopo Pellegrini

Who can say they have really heard Gian Carlo Menotti's music, among insiders? Not heard, listened: ears open, mind if not clear at least not crowded with prejudices. Yet there was no shortage of opportunities, not only in the 1950s-1970s (the phase of the unimaginable international diffusion), but also thereafter, as the extensive catalog of our fresh Centenary never ceased to circulate, both the most beaten titles(Amelia at the Ball, The Telephone, The Medium, Amahl, The Consul, The Globolinks, the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra), and the other, less fortunate (not always less beautiful), works.

Obstacles to comprehension until to some time ago arose, especially on the European shore, from the prevalence of certain ideological positions, from widespread anti-Americanism; but even today the predominant image remains that of the ′able man of the theater who destines music to subsidiary functions, of the ′reporter′ who observes social reality from below, "in a limpid and direct language, not intellectualistic" (Fedele d′Amico).

What if instead, as Menotti himself tried to to suggest (the title chosen for this conference is taken from from an interview with Alessandro Cannavò in 1992), it was music to that oriented and gave meaning to the dramatic action, if behind the realistic picture lay a marked propensity for the symbol (in tune with so much twentieth-century American spoken word theater, from O′Neill to Williams to Miller)?

For the first time, scholars of various backgrounds (European and American), training (historians of music, film and literature), interests, come together in Menotti′s name to investigate his artistic production, aesthetic conception, cultural identity (Italian or American composer?), (most often painful) relations with the press, and activity as a director of prose and works in music, his own and others'.

An unprecedented review, strongly desired from Giorgio Ferrara and realized thanks to the contribution of Monini, historical sponsor of the Festival, for an artist shamefully neglected by research, with little or no scholarly bibliography. A reflection to all-round, hopefully not spoiled from qualms or preventive hostility, to investigate and, insofar as possible, explain form functioning and historical-ideal background of a production marked from distinct communicative, expressive, gestural faculties.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 6

at 11

Greetings

Jacopo Pellegrini

Introduction "I am not innocent"

At work with Menotti

Recorded testimonies by: Renata Scotto James Conlon, Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

Interventions of

Masolino d′Amico (Rome), "Gian Carlo Menotti and His Theater."

Francesco Maria Colombo (Milan), "Noir? Pulp? Slapstick Comedy?"

at 14,30

Fiamma Nicolodi (Florence) presiding.

Composer of two worlds

Giovanni Carli Ballola (Rome), "Renegade and happy: the Menotti case."

Critical (s)fortune

Interventions of

Giordano Montecchi (Parma), "Te la do io l′America. Menotti and Italian Criticism in the Cold War Years."

Matteo Sansone (Florence-New York), "Composer on Broadway? Menotti in Anglo-American Criticism."

Johannes Streicher (Bolzano), "On the Reception of Gian Carlo Menotti in German-speaking Countries."

Outside the theater

Interventions of

Giovanni Guanti (Rome), "Gian Carlo Menotti between misoneism and dowsing."

Alberto Bosco (Turin), "Menotti Goes to the Hall. Masses, Madrigals, Cantatas and Other Music for Chorus."

Paolo Cattelan (Padua-Venice), "Who are these dark archangels? Images of the vocality of early Menotti."

THURSDAY, JULY 7

at 9,30

Biancamaria Brumana (Perugia) presides.

Music for the media

Speakers Emilio Sala (Milan), "Gian Carlo Menotti artist of the twentieth century."

Anselma Dell′Olio (New York-Rome), "The Medium on Film."

at 10,30

Melo Freni, Un′ora con Gian Carlo Menotti. The life, the works (Rai Uno - Teche, 1981). Introduced by the author.

at 12,00

Issues of dramaturgy

Speakers Luciano Alberti (Florence), Gian Carlo Menotti also director

Virgilio Bernardoni (Bergamo), The consul: a′opera committed?

Guido Salvetti (Milan-Rome), "The from chamber lyrics of a musician-poet," with the friendly participation of Stelia Doz, soprano

at 14,30

Luca Aversano (Rome) presiding.

In theater

Talks by Albert Gier (Bamberg), "Gian Carlo Menotti librettist," Antonio Rostagno (Rome), "Amelia at the dance between two eras of theater."

Cesare Orselli (Florence), "An Atheist for Holiness."

Marco Cosci(Cremona), "One species, many cultures. Representation of the Other in the Last Savage and in Tamu Tamu."

Francesco Cesari (Venice), "Historical works ′to measure′: La Loca and Goya."

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