- Maria Golovin
-
Gian Carlo Menotti 
Operas- Amelia Goes to the Ball (1937)
- The Old Maid and the Thief (1939)
- The Island God (1942)
- The Medium (1946)
- The Telephone, or L'Amour à trois (1947)
- The Consul (1950)
- Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951)
- The Saint of Bleecker Street (1954)
- The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore (1956)
- Maria Golovin (1958)
- Labyrinth (1963)
- The Last Savage (1963)
- Martin's Lie (1964)
- Help, Help, the Globolinks! (1968)
- The Hero (1976)
- The Boy Who Grew Too Fast (1982)
Maria Golovin is an English language opera in three acts by Gian Carlo Menotti. It is through-composed and centers on a romantic encounter between a blind recluse named Donato and the title character, a married woman living in a European country a few years after a recent war. The work was commissioned by Peter Herman Adler of the NBC Opera Theatre.
Its first performance was at the International Exposition Pavilion Theater at Expo '58 in Brussels on 20 August 1958. Later that year, David Merrick and the NBC Opera mounted a Broadway production billed as a "musical drama." It was staged by Menotti and ran for five performances at the Martin Beck Theatre. The cast included Patricia Neway, Ruth Kobart, Norman Kelley, William Chapman, and Richard Cross, who won the 1959 Theatre World Award for his performance. Maria Golovin is not part of the usual operatic repertory and rarely is performed today, although The Paley Center for Media (Museum of Television & Radio) in New York has scheduled a screening of the 1959 NBC Opera production of the work, starring Franca Duval, Richard Cross, and Patricia Neway, for May 21, 2011 at 2 p.m. followed by a discussion with Mr. Cross.
Contents
Roles
Role Voice type Premiere Cast, 20 August 1958
(Conductor: Gian Carlo Menotti)Agata mezzo-soprano Ruth Kobart Donato bass-baritone Richard Cross Dr Zuckertanz tenor Herbert Handt The mother contralto Patricia Neway Maria Golovin soprano Franca Duval Trottolo, her son boy soprano Lorenzo Muti A prisoner baritone William Chapman Critical appreciation
Time described it as "something of a disappointment" and added, "the impact is marred by banalities of speech . . . and the hero's unsympathetic character." Of the music it said, "At its worst, the Golovin score is not only too sweet but too facile . . . At its best, the score is hauntingly tender and compelling." There were also some raves: “This is a love story that should touch the hearts of sentimentalists,” wrote critic Howard Taubman in the New York Times following the world premiere in Brussels. “The find of the production is Richard Cross, who sings and plays the blind man with force and compassion . . . Franca Duval is personally attractive, musically intelligent and touchingly vulnerable as Maria Golovin.”
Recordings
A cast album was released by RCA Victor. This recording was reissued on CD by Naxos Historical in 2011.[1]
References
- ^ "On-line catalogue entry Menotti G.C. Maria Golovin". Naxos Records. http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.111376-77. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
External links
Categories:- 1958 operas
- Operas by Gian Carlo Menotti
- English-language operas
- Operas
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