<<  -- 5 --  Bill Newman    MENOTTI AT SPOLETO

I was most impressed at the sheer glamour of this final event, with every dignatory you like to imagine present in the audience. But it was nothing like the supper party and the firework display that followed: a lamp lit occasion with a Johann Strauss chamber ensemble greeting guests, then the sumptuous gourmet food and booze spread at various marquees where you liberally helped yourself before claiming your reserved table on the Palaccio lawns. I was very taken with an elongated Chinese lantern that almost touched the rippling waters of the stream, hidden by tall firs at the rear. Yes - I enjoyed the repast too, but the temperature suddenly dropped shortly before midnight causing repercussions when I arrived home in London.

Before leaving, Jimmy and I met up with Menotti once more, and his son Francis was full of admiration with Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier directed by Richard Hickox before my arrival at the Teatro Nuovo. I glanced back stage and it reminded me of San Carlo, Naples. 'Dear Richard', as he is popularly known in Spoleto, also directed Haydn's The Creation, a Mendelssohn programme, and a Ravel/Menotti concert. The Menotti works - Fantasy for cello and orchestra, Apocalypse and Sebastian Suite - will be released by Chandos in due course.

When you read Maestro, the Menotti interview, you might wonder at Gian Carlo's comments about the festival being a mistake. But having read his perceptive and heartwarming comments of an earlier date in the booklet already mentioned, his achievments as a composer and musical innovator for all to enjoy and learn from, go side by side. Only select musicians reap the benefit of doing both equally well, and for that the world should be eternally grateful.

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