Amid the shambles of Gian Carlo Menotti's opera Goya, which got its world premiere in Washington this month, there was one bright spot: at least the sets are reusable. One of them could double as Lillas Pastia's tavern in Carmen; another might suit Violetta's death in La Traviata. But as for Menotti's already recycled libretto and music, there can be no future at all.
The Italian-born composer, 75, has long purveyed a brand of derivative, pseudoromantic opera, such as The Consul and The Saint of Bleecker Street, which both somehow won Pulitzer Prizes in the '50s and still cling to life...