Gian Carlo Menotti is best known as a composer of hugely successful operas written in America in the fifties and sixties, including The Consul and Amahl and the Night Visitors - the first opera written for television. In 1958 he founded the Spoleto Festival which he still helps to run. He was the lover of Samuel Barber and together they were lionised by American society-the Kennedys, Monroe and Callas were all friends. Now living in Scotland, Menotti talks candidly to Michael White about his life and music and gives exclusive access to his correspondence.