Most of us probably know of Gian Carlo Menotti as an opera composer, with 25 operas to his credit, but he also had a small output of art songs to his own texts. His songs sound very much like miniatures of his operas and can be a great introduction to his style prior to working on the arias.

The scores for today are available at Sheet Music Plus: Canti della lontananza, Five Songs

Recordings featured in this episode, performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, Zachary Dean Smith, tenor, and Ellen Rissinger, pianist:

• Mattinata di neve
• Il settimo bicchiere di vino
• La lettera
• The Eternal Prisoner
• The Idle Gift

Recorded at Morningstar Studios in Norristown, PA.

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So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about  their network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

You can follow Ellen and The Diction Police on Facebook and at www.dictionpolice.com.

You can follow Toni Marie on Facebook at Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano and Instagram @ToniMariePalmertree

You can find out more about Zach on his website, https://www.zacharydeansmith.com/