2 replies to this topic

[papeetepatrick]

http://www.nytimes.c...?ref=obituaries

I had thought he would be with us forever, and was glad of it.  Hard not to find something to love in his work, whether 'Monica, Monica' or 'The Telephone', 'The Medium', or just when there used to be annual broadcasts of 'Amahl and the Night Visitors.'  I don't know if he was involved much in ballet, and am putting this up here before I even have time to read the above obituary.

[Natalia]

Thanks, papeetepatrick. At the very least, Menotti was involved with ballet as a presenter of many fine dance artists and troupes at his Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, in the 1960s and 70s  (and, later, Charleston, SC). For example, Nureyev's very first staging of a full-length ballet in the West was his first setting of Raymonda at Spoleto in 1964, starring himself and Fonteyn. Nina Ananiashvili's Georgian Ballet will make its US debut at this year's Spoleto-Charleston festival. And so on.

[sandik]

Even if he'd never written a note of music used for dancing, his contributions to the Spoleto Festival would make him central to the art form.  Between this and Glen Tetley and Molly Ivins (I know, an oddball combination)  it's been a sad week.