부산대학교 도서관

(Menotti Maria) (b Foggia, Aug 28, 1867; d Milan, Nov 12, 1948). Italian composer. The son of a chemist who intended him for the career of a fencing master, he devoted himself to music against his parents’ will. In 1882 he was admitted to the Naples Conservatory, where his teachers included Paolo Serrao and Giuseppe Martucci. While still a student he entered a one-act opera, Marina, for the Sonzogno competition of 1889. Although short-listed among the 73 submissions it was awarded only sixth place (the winner being Mascagni with Cavalleria rusticana). Nonetheless Sonzogno thought sufficiently well of it to commission from Giordano a full-length opera, Mala vita (1892, Rome), based on a novella of low-life in Naples by Salvatore Di Giacomo (see illustration). With its wealth of local colour and strong story line it proved highly successful in Austria and Germany, where it began a temporary vogue for operas in a Neapolitan setting. In Italy it was found too shocking, and five years later Giordano revised it as ...