Blennerhassett (opera)

Blennerhassett is a brief radio opera in one act by American composer Vittorio Giannini with a libretto by Phillip Roll and Norman Corwin. It was commissioned by CBS Radio as part of the Columbia Composers Commission, following the success of Giannini's earlier radio opera Beauty and the Beast. It received its premiere in a radio broadcast on 2 November 1939. Blennerhassett was subsequently performed in several staged and concert productions, including a 1991 semi-staged concert performance in New York City by American Chamber Opera. A performance of the opera generally lasts less than thirty minutes, although the 1991 production added a 10-minute prelude set in a radio studio which reenacted the pre-broadcast preparation for the original premiere. rdf:langString