Francesco's Notes - Part 3

Part of a series. View the Blog Archive for more interviews with Franceso alleRuzzo
Q: For this opera, Menotti wrote the music and libretto. Is it unusual for a composer to write both?
Francesco: First off we should explain that a libretto is basically a script for an opera. Many times they are adapted from novels or stories. Usually an author writes the book, a librettist adapts it (i.e., makes a screenplay), and then the composer sets it to music. AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS is unusual in that Gian Carlo Menotti wrote both the libretto and the music. He got the idea for the story as he was wandering through the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. He saw Hieronymus Bosch's VISITATION OF THE MAGI and remembered his childhood in Italy. They did not have the tradition of Santa Claus but received gifts at Epiphany that were "brought" by the Three Wise Men. He was also crippled as a child and experienced a miracle after a visit to a holy shrine in Italy. All of these inspired him to write this opera.