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Menotti loves to argue philosophy before the fire, but he hates to haggle in the world of Broadway, where his successes have taken him. Says Producer Cowles, by now a case-hardened Broadwayite: "Anybody can get anything from Menotti if they just yell at him." So far no one has been able to yell him down on his own notions of artistic integrity. Menotti's formula is simple: "I take less money and get the kind of contract I want." He is probably the only musician ever to extort a contract from Hollywood (for two scripts in 1947) which provided that not one word, nor one note of his music, if he chose to write any, was to be changed. To nobody's surprise, no movie ever came of it. He has been embarrassingly direct with potential backers, too. At money-raising auditions for The Consul last winter, Menotti, who believes "opera should be an art, not an investment," almost queered the deal by declaring in solemn, admonitory speeches that "My opera is vaaary glooomy." His frantic producers later sent him a hand-painted tie with his warning on it.
For the Soul. With the Shuberts, who own the Ethel Barrymore, planning to keep The Consul running on Broadway for two years, Menotti thought it was high time to "watch out for success." He was not overly concerned with where he stood in the great operatic tradition. He had not discovered anything brand-new, and he knew it. Paul Hindemith, Ernst Krenek and the late Kurt Weill had broken the ground for him in Germany in the '20s. Austrian Atonalist Alban Berg's gloomy Wozzeck had moved opera musically miles from the Verdis and Monteverdis.
But with his freshness of dramatic invention, Menotti has been more successful at putting opera over in the U.S. than any other composer of his own generation. English Composer Benjamin Britten has had spectacular success in grand opera houses with his bigger and more traditional opera Peter Grimes, and his chamber operas Albert Herring and Let's Make an Opera are successful in Britain and Europe. His lone Broadway production, The Rape of Lucretia, was a flop.
Menotti is smart enough to know that "if you start running after successes you're through." He feels that "any subject is good for opera if the composer feels it so intensely he must sing it out." He is sure his inspiration would fail if he tried to compose the same kind of opera time & again. Moreover, he argues that although the public shouts, "That was fine, give us another just like that," it really "does not want what it thinks it wants." Generally, he thinks the U.S. public is too unresponsive about what it hears. Last week he told a Manhattan Women's City Club audience "to applaud us if you like the music, throw potatoes at us if you don't—but don't just sit there."
He has plenty of work cut out for himself. Later this month he will sail for Italy to catch up on his share of hometown fame. He will make a movie of The Medium, later supervise productions of The Consul in London and Paris, as well as at La Scala. In his dedication to opera, he regrets that he has not had greater chance for orchestral composition. He has written a piano concerto and a ballet suite, Sebastian, is currently working on a violin concerto.