The Consul
The Consul is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007)
Contents
The original text
Set around an enigmatic consulate in Eastern Europe, Gian Carlo Menotti’s three-act opera constructs a gloomy world in which a family’s desperate attempt to flee totalitarian rule is met with an indifferent bureaucracy.
Its first performance was on March 1, 1950, at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia.
Translations and adaptations
Performance history in South Africa
1968: Presented by NAPAC Opera.
1991: Presented by CAPAB Opera (2–10 February)
Sources
Five Facts to Know about Gian Carlo Menotti and 'The Consul'. Boston Conservatory at Berklee. https://bostonconservatory.berklee.edu/news/five-facts-know-about-gian-carlo-menotti-and-consul
Wayne Muller. 2018. A reception history of opera in Cape Town: Tracing the development of a distinctly South African operatic aesthetic (1985–2015). Unpublished PhD thesis.
Alexandra Xenia Sabina Mossolow. 2003. The career of South African soprano Nellie du Toit, born 1929. Unpublished Masters thesis. University of Stellenbosch.
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