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Gian Carlo Menotti

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Composer

The Resume

    (July 7, 1911-February 1, 2007)
    Born in Cadegliano-Viconago, Italy
    Best known for his Christmas-themed opera 'Amahl and the Night Visitors' (1951)
    Other operas include 'The Medium' (1946), 'The Consul' (1950), 'The Saint of Bleeker Street' (1954), 'Maria Golovin' (1958), 'Help, Help, the Globolinks!' (1968), 'The Hero' (1976), 'The Boy Who Grew Too Fast' (1982), 'Goya' (1986) and 'The Wedding' (1988)

Why he might be annoying:

    He said he was 'a beautiful child until my nose started to grow.'
    Although he referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship.
    He suffered bouts of severe writer's block, leading him to offer to refund NBC his $5,000 comission if they would cancel 'Amahl and the Night Visitors.'
    Igor Stravinsky dismissed his compositions as 'mid-Mascagni' and Luigi Nono withdrew from a project rather than allow his music to share a program with Menotti's.
    Time magazine described his operas as 'Puccini and water' and 'Mussorgsky with the Mussorgsky removed.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He said, 'Any subject is good for opera if the composer feels it so intensely he must sing it out.'
    He won Pulitzer Prizes for 'The Consul' and 'The Saint of Bleeker Street.'
    In addition to composing the music, he wrote his own librettos and directed the staging of his operas.
    He wrote the first operas commissioned for radio and TV.
    He said that Amahl 'introduced so many people to music. I get hundreds of letters about it to this day.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 17 Votes: 41.18% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 5 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 188 Votes: 53.19% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 34 Votes: 76.47% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 25 Votes: 68.00% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 33 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 81 Votes: 69.14% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 134 Votes: 79.10% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 91 Votes: 43.96% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 158 Votes: 73.42% Annoying