The Old Maid and the Thief was originally conceived as a Radio Opera and was first broadcast on April 22, 1939 by the National Broadcasting Company. In February 1941, the Philadelphia Opera Company staged the work, which was broadcast on television in May 1943. Several screen versions of The Old Maid and the Thief exist, and the work is still staged regularly as is this production.
This one-act opera is composed by Gian Carlo Menotti, an Italian-American composer who moved to America from Italy at the age of seventeen to attend the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. There he befriended fellow student Samuel Barber, with whom he eventually spent over forty years of his life with. Menotti often visited Barber’s home in West Chester,
This one-act opera is composed by Gian Carlo Menotti, an Italian-American composer who moved to America from Italy at the age of seventeen to attend the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. There he befriended fellow student Samuel Barber, with whom he eventually spent over forty years of his life with. Menotti often visited Barber’s home in West Chester,