Gian Carlo MENOTTI (1911-2007)
The Saint of Bleecker Street - Opera in three Acts (1954) [115:33]
The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore - Madrigal fable (1956) [40:15]
The Saint of Bleecker Street: Annina Gabrielle Ruggiero (soprano);
Michele David Poleri (tenor); Desideria Gloria Lane (mezzo); Carmela
Maria Di Gerlando (soprano); Don Marco Leon Lishner (bass); Assunta Catherine
Akos (mezzo); Maria Corona Maria Marlo (soprano); Her son Ernesto Gonzales;
Salvatore David Aiken (baritone); Concettina Lucy Becque; A young man
Richard Cassilly (tenor); A young woman Elizabeth Carron (soprano); First
Guest Keith Kaldenberg (tenor); Second Guest John Reardon (baritone);
Barman Russell Goodwin (baritone); Chorus and Orchestra/Thomas Schippers
rec. March 1955, New York City
(The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore)
Vocal and instrumental ensemble/Thomas Schippers
rec. 1957, New York City
NAXOS 8.111360-61 [79:30 + 76:18]
Naxos are celebrating the Menotti centenary by reissuing the early recordings
of his operas and other works. This is a valuable service as works that were
so popular for a time, in some quarters if not with all critics, have now
virtually disappeared from the stage. The Saint of Bleecker Street is
set among the Italian immigrant community of New York and in essence is about
religious belief and unbelief. The central characters are Annina, who wishes
to become a nun and who is believed to have the stigmata, and her brother
Michele, who believes that she is in fact sick and that the attention paid
to her is harmful to her. The plot combines religion, violence and a small
amount of sex, and can be regarded as a prime example of verismo, especially
as it is set in a poor area of New York at the time that it was written.
Its predecessors, The Medium and The Consul, also had contemporary
settings. Both were understandably very successful in their concentration
on a single theme. The Saint of Bleecker Street is more diffuse in
its subject and confused in its impact so that, despite winning a Pulitzer
Prize (like The Consul), it was much less popular both on its first
run (an initial run of 92 performances) and at subsequent revivals. Whilst
it is certainly musically more complex than its predecessors it lacks their
sheer impact. The frequent reminders of earlier composers, especially Puccini
but also Mussorgsky and even Massenet, serve less to show the lessons he had
learnt from them than how much better they were as operatic composers. It
is certainly skillfully written but compared with Menottis earlier successes
it lacks memorable material and focus.
Similar comments apply to The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore.
The basic idea of producing a contemporary equivalent to the madrigal comedies
of Banchieri and Vecchi was excellent, and the fable of a poet who keeps three
fabulous creatures which represent various times in his life is potentially
stimulating. Unfortunately the words, and even more the music, simply do not
live up to the intentions. Certainly the music for a small chorus and an
ensemble of nine instruments is varied and pleasant, but it lacks any special
inventiveness and remains unmemorable throughout. The booklet points out that
the composition of the music was left until the last moment. Rossini might
have been able to get away with this but in this instance Menotti did not.
It sounds for much of the time like a composer on auto-pilot.
The performances, both recorded soon after the works premieres, can be assumed
to be authentic in style. None of the singers seem to regard beauty of tone
as a priority but I must acknowledge the clarity of their diction, with appropriately
strong American accents in the opera. This is important as the booklet contains
only detailed synopses and libretti and scores are not easy to find. The recordings
do show their age but have been sympathetically re-mastered and in no way
prevent a sympathetic listener following or enjoying the works.
I am sorry to have written such a negative review. I had hoped that listening
to these works after a long period of time might demonstrate merits I failed
to see when I heard them first in the 1960s. Unfortunately that has not been
the case, but I live in hope that seeing them in the theatre some day might
still reveal unexpected effectiveness. Menotti was very much a man of the
theatre and listening to them on disc inevitably gives only a partial picture
of their character and merits.
John Sheppard
Listening to these operas on disc gives only a partial picture of their character
and merits.