Dominick Argento - Minnesota Years

Minnesota Years

Argento moved to Minneapolis in 1958 with his new wife Carolyn to begin teaching theory and composition at the University of Minnesota. Within a few years he received commissions from virtually every major performing group there. He has remarked that this constant feeling of strong community interest in his work made him feel particularly at home in Minnesota, despite the fact that he resisted moving there at first and hoped for several years that a position on the East Coast would beckon. Argento became involved in writing music for productions at the then-new Guthrie Theatre, and in 1963, he and Scrymgeour founded the Center Opera Company, which later became the Minnesota Opera, to be in residence there. Argento composed the short opera The Masque of Angels for the occasion as the first Performing Arts commission of the Walker Art Center, and the work – with its complex harmonic language and an emphasis on expansive choral writing that prefigures his later role as a prominent choral composer – firmly established his local prominence, as well as providing a role for his wife. He also spent time at his childhood friend's cabin, Russell Burris, and his family.

By 1971, when his daring surreal opera Postcard from Morocco opened at Center Opera, his national reputation was secure, in part thanks to a glowing review by the principal music critic of the New York Times. He eventually received commissions from New York City Opera, the newly formed Minnesota Opera, Washington Opera, and the Baltimore and St. Louis Symphonies, among others. He also developed close professional relationships with several prominent singers, notably Frederica von Stade, Janet Baker, and Håkan Hagegård, and some of his best-known song cycles were tailored to their talents.