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Composer of the Week

Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007)

Episode 3

Duration: 1 hour

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3Latest broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Donald Macleod explores Amahl and the Night Visitors, Menotti's creation of an American Christmas tradition that introduced a whole generation to the joy of opera. The composer finished only days before the broadcast from Studio 8-H of New York's Radio City Music Hall, on Christmas Eve 1951, when the first opera written expressly for television went live on the air. It became one of the most frequently performed pieces on the American stage, clocking up over 2,000 performances in the late 1960s alone. Show less

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