Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menottiwas an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, along with over two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular taste...
NationalityItalian
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth7 July 1911
CountryItaly
dared modest nobility rediscover
For better or for worse, in 'The Last Savage,' I have dared to do away completely with fashionable dissonance, and in a modest way, I have endeavored to rediscover the nobility of gracefulness and the pleasure of sweetness.
composers love
My advice to composers is, 'Try to reach 90, and everyone will love you.'
asks watch
At the premieres, I always watch the audience. If a child asks to go to the bathroom, I know I've failed.
artist dig god greeks stay travel
The Greeks said the artist doesn't actually have to travel and look around. You stay where God has put you, and you dig as deep as you can. This is what I've done.
harder life suffer worked
I should have worked harder in my life. I suffer from a guilt complex.
beethoven call human interests mozart music noblest note wonderful
The only thing that interests me in music is to be able to reach into the, let's call it, 'collective unconscious' of what is noblest in the human spirit, the way you find in the music of Mozart and Beethoven and Verdi that wonderful quality that not a note can be changed.
amsterdam cannot church hear italians listen melody sing
The Italians are very unmusical. If I go to a Protestant church in London or Amsterdam or listen to a black choir, I hear four-part harmony. Italians could never do that. In Italy, we all have to sing the melody because we cannot harmonise.
against call rather rebelled society
I rebelled against the idea of the artist being what I call the 'after-dinner mint' of society. I didn't want them to be just the entertainers, but rather part of the community - the bread, not only the dessert.
buy cold italy quiet reasons relatives three time
There are three reasons why I live in Scotland. First, I like silence, and you have to be a millionaire to buy silence in Italy. Second, I like cold weather. Third, in Italy I have too many relatives and know too many people, so I never get a quiet time.
became doctors madonna miraculous nanny pictures priest pulled took
As a little boy of 3 or 4, I became lame. Something was wrong with my right leg. There are pictures of me being pulled around in a little wagon. The doctors didn't know what to do. So my nanny took me to the miraculous Madonna at Sacro Monte in Varese, the priest blessed me, and I walked.
opera university
Now, all of a sudden, every college and every university has an opera theater. Every little city has its little group.
dead die everybody feeling found rediscover waiting
I have the feeling that everybody was waiting for me to die so they could rediscover me. Then they found out I'm not dead yet, so they are rediscovering me while I'm still alive.
beethoven chopin schubert though time
I really don't think I have that much of the gift; I have a little bit, but I wish I were Schubert or Chopin or Beethoven, though Beethoven had a very difficult time writing melody, too.
art
I'm not very sympathetic to the tendency to bring art to the people.