Daily Inspiration Quote by Gian Carlo Menotti

Menotti is slipping a lit match under opera’s fussy gatekeeping. In one sentence he takes aim at the old prestige economy - the assumption that opera requires royal courts, mythic tragedy, or “important” historical material to justify its scale. His standard isn’t subject matter but necessity: the composer’s feeling has to be so concentrated it bursts into song. Opera, in this frame, isn’t a museum form that confers grandeur on a story; it’s the natural byproduct of emotional pressure.

The slyness is that “must” doubles as both compulsion and permission. Menotti gives composers a mandate to trust appetite over canon, while also placing a ruthless bar on sincerity. Not every topic deserves opera; only the ones that won’t leave the maker alone. That’s less democratic than it sounds. He’s arguing for intensity as a kind of artistic ethics: if you’re writing opera because it’s prestigious, you’ll be exposed.

The context matters. Menotti built a career on accessible, contemporary opera (The Consul, Amahl and the Night Visitors), often designed for radio and television - media that made opera compete with everyday life rather than reign above it. So the quote is also a practical manifesto: opera survives by expanding what it can metabolize, not by policing taste. The subtext is almost anti-operatic in its humility: the “grand” form is only justified when an inner voice refuses to speak and insists on singing.