The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore
"Madrigal fable" by Gian Carlo Menotti
The composer in 1944
LanguageEnglish
Premiere
October 19, 1956 (1956-10-19)
Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore or The Three Sundays of a Poet is a "madrigal fable" for chorus, ten dancers and nine instruments with music and original

Washington D.C. at the Library of Congress
Coolidge Auditorium on October 19, 1956.

Background and performance history

A manticore in an illustration from the Rochester Bestiary

The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore was commissioned in 1956 by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation for the 12th Festival of Chamber Music in

The Gorgon representing the success and haughtiness of middle age, and The Manticore representing the shy loneliness of old age. Despite its English language libretto, Menotti's work was modelled on the 16th-century Italian madrigal comedy or commedia harmonica, a precursor to the opera genre and typified by Orazio Vecchi's L'Amfiparnaso.[2] Unlike conventional operas, all the singing is choral with no solo voice roles. Although the dancers were intended to be an integral part of the work, Menotti resisted calling it a ballet and eventually settled on the description "madrigal fable".[3] He composed it at virtually the last minute, sending madrigals to his choreographer as he finished them. The twelfth and last one was completed a week before the premiere with the first complete rehearsal held only four days before the opening night.[4]

The world premiere took place at the Library of Congress

Spoleto, Italy at the Festival dei Due Mondi also in 2007; and Washington, D.C. performed by the Cantate Chamber Singers and the Bowen McCauley Dance troupe in 2009.[7] Menotti's centenary year, 2011, has seen performances in Seattle by The Esoterics vocal ensemble and in Ljubljana by the Slovenian National Theatre Opera and Ballet.[8]

Bartholomeus Anglicus

Structure and music

The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore consists of a prologue and 12 madrigals which tell a continuous story. They are sung (most of them

Time Magazine critic who attended the world premiere as "a singular and engaging combination of ancient contrapuntal harmonies and tart, modern, dramatic values." The critic also singled out the melancholy beauty of the twelfth and last madrigal with the chorus singing "almost liturgically, as if each voice were a pipe in an organ." Menotti said of the twelfth madrigal: "It is the most deeply and personally felt of anything I've written. It is something I would like for my own funeral."[4] The madrigal was also sung in 1981 at the funeral of Samuel Barber, who had been Menotti's lover for many years.[10]

Synopsis

The prologue describes a strange man living in a castle above a seaside town who shuns the town's social life and the

gorgon. The Contessa and townspeople assume he has killed his unicorn and promptly kill theirs to replace them with gorgons. On the third Sunday, he appears with a manticore. They once again follow suit by killing their gorgons and buying manticores. When the poet fails to appear on the fourth Sunday, the townspeople assume he has killed his manticore too. Scandalized, they march to his castle to attack him. When they arrive, they find the poet dying surrounded by his three pets, all of whom are alive. In the twelfth and final madrigal he berates the townspeople for slavishly following fashion. Unlike them, he had kept all his pets: "You, not I, are the indifferent killers of the poet's dreams. How could I destroy the pain wrought children of my fancy?" The poet then bids farewell to each of his creatures in turn and tells them "Not even death I fear as in your arms I die."[11]

Recordings

An

Naxos Historical
. More recent recordings include:

References

Notes

  1. ^ See for example, Teeters (1996); Ardoin (1985) pp. 111–112; Dyer (October 2, 1997); Time Magazine (November 5, 1956)
  2. ^ Hixon (2000) p. 8
  3. ^ Teeters (1996)
  4. ^ a b Time Magazine (November 5, 1956)
  5. ^ Hixon (2000) p. 283.
  6. ^ a b Dyer (October 2, 1997)
  7. ^ Banno (January 20, 2009)
  8. ^ The Esoterics: Gian Carlo Menotti centennial; Programme of The Ljubljana Festival 2011 (both accessed 25 July 2011)
  9. ^ Hixon (2000) p. 281
  10. ^ Heyman (1995) p. 496
  11. ^ Menotti, Gian Carlo. Text of the Twelfth Madrigal, The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore reprinted in James Madison University (2009) p. 4
  12. ^ Hixon (2000) p. 287

Sources

  • Ardoin, John (1985). The Stages of Menotti. Doubleday.
    ISBN 0-385-14938-7
  • Banno, Joe (January 20, 2009). "Review: Cantate Chamber Singers and Bowen McCauley Dance".
    Washington Post
  • Dyer, Richard (October 2, 1997). "Recording review: Menotti: The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore, Newport Classic".
    Boston Globe
     (subscription required)
  • Heyman, Barbara B. (1995). Samuel Barber: The Composer and his Music (reprint). Oxford University Press.
    ISBN 0-19-509058-6
  • Hixon, Donald L. (2000). Gian Carlo Menotti: A Bio-bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group.
    ISBN 0-313-26139-3
  • James Madison University (2009). Programme notes: Contemporary Music Festival, February 4-7, 2009
  • Life Magazine (February 25, 1957). "Beasts in a Ballet"
    , Vol. 42, No. 8, p. 66.
  • Teeters, Donald (1996). Programme notes: "Menotti's The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore" (performed by the Boston Cecilia, Sanders Theatre, Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 10, 1996). bostoncecilia.org
  • Time Magazine (November 5, 1956). "Madrigal & Mime"

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Unicorn,_the_Gorgon,_and_the_Manticore&oldid=1220997843"