For most Dutch opera lovers is Menotti no more than a vaguely familiar name. His operas have never been very popular here and performances can be counted on one hand. Why? I don’t know. O yes, there are performances here and there, mostly made by students. But at the DNO? Matinee?
A pity, really, because not only is his music exceptionally beautiful (think of a combination of Mascagni and Britten), but the subjects he deals with in his (self-written) libretti are socially engaged and they address current topics.
Menotti met his longtime partner Samuel Barber
A newspaper article of February 12, 1947 on the suicide of a Polish emigrant whose visa for the USA had been rejected, was seen by Menotti, who sadly remembered the fate of his Jewish friends in Austria and Germany.
He took this sorry tale and used it as a basis for his first full-length opera. The subject has – unfortunately – lost none of its actuality and The Consul is and remains an opera that cuts right through your soul.
In 1960, it was produced for television, and that registration has been released on DVD by VAI (4266 ). In black and white, without subtitles (don’t be alarmed, there is very clear singing) and extremely dramatically portrayed by Jean Dalrymple.
Patricia Neway sings ‘To This We’ve Come’:
The Consul was Cornell MacNeill’s first opera recording:
Recording from Spoletto 1999 with Susan Bullock
Bonus:
Virginia Zeani
Eileen Farrell:
Basia con fuoco 
De Nederlandse opera heeft in 1979 een serie voorstellingen gegeven van de Consul in de regie van Carlo Menotti zelf met het stadion Kamer Ofkest olv Siebe zriefstra met o.a Cora Canne Meyer, Hubert Waver, Helene Vesloot, Marvellee Cariaga e.v.a. De productie had veel succes
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Ik vermoed in bovenstaande reactie enkele foutjes. Er zal wel Radio Kamerorkest en Siebe Riedstra moeten staan.
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Bij de voormalige. Ned. Opera was ook een opvoering met greet koeman Jan van management en cora canne Meijer o.a ikwas nog jong maar heeft me zeer geraakt
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Jan van management? Wellicht is Jan van Mantgem bedoeld.
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ja inderdaad van mantgem
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Ondergetekende heeft hier al eerder gereageerd op het misverstand dat de opera’s van Menotti hier weinig zijn uitgevoerd. Ik heb toen een waslijst aan professionele uitvoeringen in Nederland toegevoegd.
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