Source of The Story
In many print media it says that the libretto of Gian-Carlo Menotti is based on a work of Isak Dinesen (pen name for Karen Blixen), described variously as a "short story" or "novella". However, the story is not found in any of Isak Dinesen's works. There is evidence of Samuel Barber's having read Blixen's Seven Gothic Tales, and the mistaking of the proper source may have come from a proclamation by Menotti and Barber, that the opera reproduced the "atmosphere" of Isak Dinesen's Seven Gothic Tales. "Menotti recalled, 'I was writing a libretto for Sam, and Sam is essentially a romantic personality...'" Menotti was "inspired by Isak Dinesen's stories, in particular her Seven Gothic Tales. He said, "I felt that the atmosphere... would make a wonderful opera."
Karen Blixen was present at the premiere of the opera on January 7, 1959, but part way through the performance she pleaded illness and left the theater. Her secretary wrote that Barber was "upset" by Blixen's premature departure from the opera. Karen Blixen made no public comment.
Read more about this topic: Vanessa (opera)
Famous quotes containing the words source of, source and/or story:
“The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.”
—Joseph Conrad (18571924)
“We are constantly railing against the passions; we ascribe to them all of mans afflictions, and we forget that they are also the source of all his pleasures.”
—Denis Diderot (17131784)
“A gorgeous example of denial is the story about the little girl who was notified that a baby brother or sister was on the way. She listened in thoughtful silence, then raised her gaze from her mothers belly to her eyes and said, Yes, but who will be the new babys mommy?”
—Judith Viorst (20th century)