AP News, June 4th, 2007
The Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a tribute to its late founder, Gian Carlo Menotti, featuring concerts and an opera written by the Italian composer.
The festival, running June 29 to July 15, will include a performance of Menotti's three-act opera "Maria Golovin" and concerts featuring pieces from his Christmas classic, "Amahl and the Night Visitors," and other works by the composer, organizers said Monday.
Menotti, who died in February at 95, won Pulitzers for a pair of the 20th century's more successful operas: "The Consul," which premiered in 1950 in Philadelphia, and "The Saint of Bleecker Street," which opened at New York's Broadway Theater in 1954.
In 1957 he founded the festival in the Umbrian hilltown and 20 years later a similar event in Charleston, S.C., as he sought to bring together fresh creative forces in U.S. and European culture.
The Festival of Two Worlds launched young artists into impressive careers. Shirley Verrett in 1962 sang her first performance of Bizet's "Carmen"; Patrice Chereau in 1959 launched his opera career with a production of Rossini's "L'Italiana in Algeri"; and Tennessee Williams' "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" premiered in 1962. From Spoleto's stages, dancers such as Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp went on to shape the direction of contemporary dance.
This year's edition will also include movie retrospectives on Andy Garcia and Terry Gilliam, a concert by 12 cellists from the Berlin Philharmonic as well as jazz performances, dance and theater productions.
