The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore

The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore or The Three Sundays of a Poet is a "madrigal fable" for chorus, ten dancers and nine instruments with music and original libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti. Based on the 16th-century Italian madrigal comedy genre, it consists of a prologue and 12 madrigals which tell a continuous story, interspersed with six musical interludes. The unicorn, gorgon, and manticore in the title are allegories for three stages in the life of the story's protagonist, a strange poet who keeps the mythical creatures as pets. The work premiered in Washington D.C. at the Library of Congress Coolidge Auditorium on October 19, 1956.

The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore was commissioned in 1956 by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation for the 12th Festival of Chamber Music in Washington, D.C. In constructing the libretto Menotti returned to an earlier script he had written after reading T. H. White's 1954 The Book of Beasts, a translation of a medieval Latin bestiary. The plot is a comic but ultimately melancholy attack on the "indifferent killers of the poet's dreams": slavish social conformity and the ease with which the "unfashionable" is discarded. More than one writer, including Menotti himself, has suggested that he strongly identified with the poet in his story. The three creatures of the title are allegorical representations of stages in the poet's life, with The Unicorn representing the beauty and promise of youth, The Gorgon representing the success and haughtiness of middle age, and The Manticore representing the shy loneliness of old age. Despite its English language libretto, Menotti's work was modelled on the 16th-century Italian madrigal comedy or commedia harmonica, a precursor to the opera genre and typified by Orazio Vecchi's L'Amfiparnaso. Unlike conventional operas, all the singing is choral with no solo voice roles. Although the dancers were intended to be an integral part of the work, Menotti resisted calling it a ballet and eventually settled on the description "madrigal fable". He composed it at virtually the last minute, sending madrigals to his choreographer as he finished them. The twelfth and last one was completed a week before the premiere with the first complete rehearsal held only four days before the opening night.

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