The Consul (1950)

Composed in 1950 to his own libretto, THE CONSUL was Menotti's first full-length opera. [With] its topic, the plight of political refugees, Menotti's dark, gritty, edgy post-verismo score generally inhabits a sound world [of] moody lyricism and spikiness. He makes extensive use of recitatives and successfully blends speech with music [in its] tension and emotional disintergration. Gripping, dramatic, and affecting, with a near-ideal match of subject and music, it is, to me, his best. THE CONSUL is a potent work of music drama. Strongly recommended.

The vivid new Chandos recording was made live last year at the Spoleto Festival, with Richard Hickox, a passionate advocate of this early response to the Cold War. Menotti [has written] sweeping tunes that instantly catch in the mind. Menotti can also heighten tension in cunningly placed ensembles and Hickox builds them masterfully with an excellent orchestra and a good cast. It is astonishing that this work has been neglected for so long.

The Consul offers proof that long-lined melody, backed by dramatic orchestration [with] plodding rhythms and dark, repetitious motifs can convey the accumulating weight of frustration. The power of The Consul is in the way its score and taut, compelling libretto mesh, expressing contemporary life as powerfully as screaming dissonance or chaotic rhythms.

When the opera first opened (on Broadway no less) in March of 1950 it was a phenomenal success. This 1960 production produced for television (an early attempt at "pay for view") gives clear evidence why. Not only does it preserve the original 1950 score before Menotti made some editorial changes, but also the extraordinary performance of Patricia Neway, the original Magda Sorel...it is an important historical document, but is also a strong, compelling, deeply emotional performance. There isn't a weak link here. The production is an intimate one [and] darkly evocative…

Menotti's opera THE CONSUL is a nightmare-thriller of an opera, set in a police state where the central character, Magda, is trying to flee the country and in need of a visa from the unseen and unheard consul. It does feel like Puccinian verismo, albeit with contemporary touches and a fantasy element that sits beside the thriller tension. But mostly this is music-theatre of unnerving power-with a climactic Act 2 aria that stops the show, your heart and your disbelief. Menotti has (or had, in 1950 when the piece was written) an instinctive feel for high suspense, and what he created in THE CONSUL is Hitchcock with recitatives. With a powerful staging by Simon Callow, [this production] was a pleasure. In fact, it's far and away the best thing I've ever seen at Holland Park.