Gian Carlo Menotti, 95, Composer and Festival Host
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Gian Carlo Menotti, who composed a pair of Pulitzer Prize-winning operas and founded the Spoleto arts festivals in Italy and the United States, died yesterday at a hospital in Monaco. He was 95.
The Italian composer won Pulitzers for the operas “The Consul” (1950) and “The Saint of Bleecker Street” (1954).
He also wrote the Christmas classic “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” broadcast on NBC in 1954, possibly the first opera written for television.
Menotti also authored the libretto for “Vanessa,” which was composed by Samuel Barber, and revised the libretto for Barber’s “Antony and Cleopatra.” Barber and Menotti shared a house in Mount Kisco for many years.
His Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, and Spoleto Festival USA, of Charleston, S.C., sought to bring together creative forces in U.S. and European culture.
He once compared his work at the festival to making bread — a hands-on process requiring time and attention.
“If there’s one thing I regret, it’s this accursed festival,” he said in a 2001 interview.
