Stages of Menotti

John ARDOIN | Gian Carlo MENOTTI

Item#: 31703 We're sorry, this item has been sold

THE STAGES OF MENOTTI, INSCRIBED BY THE COMPOSER

(MENOTTI, Gian Carlo) ARDOIN, John. The Stages of Menotti. Garden City: Doubleday, 1985. Quarto, original blue cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition of this study of the composer’s art, boldly inscribed by Menotti in 1989, with a musical quotation from Amahl and the Night Visitors, the first opera written expressly for television.

Menotti, born in Italy in 1911, came to the United States in 1928. From the mid-1940’s through 1960 he was the country’s most successful opera composer, largely on the strength of the first opera written for television, Amahl and the Night Visitors, which aired in 1951. Mixed with this text is a fascinating series of dialogues with the composer, illuminating his work. Profusely illustrated with color and black-and-white photographic prints, many full-page.

Fine condition, wonderfully inscribed.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
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