CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - The Spoleto Festival USA opens its 35th season this week paying homage to festival founder Gian Carlo Menotti on the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth.
One of three operas during the new season is Menotti's "The Medium." It's the first time the festival has staged a Menotti opera since the composer left 18 years ago in a dispute over his successor. He died in 2007 at age 95.
Menotti started the Charleston festival in 1977 as a companion to the arts festival he started in Spoleto, Italy, almost two decades earlier.
Menotti also changed Charleston. The festival sparked a rebirth of the arts in the city at the same time its downtown underwent a renaissance. A quiet street near the Spoleto headquarters is now named for the composer.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
