Pasatieri, Thomas

Pasatieri, Thomas, talented American composer; b. N.Y., Oct. 20, 1945. He began to play the piano by spontaneous generation, and picked up elements of composition, particularly vocal, by a similar subliminal process; between the ages of 14 and 18 he wrote some 400 songs. He persuaded Boulanger to take him as a student by correspondence between Paris and N.Y. when he was 15, and at 16 he entered the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y., where he became a student of Giannini and Persichetti. He also took a course with Milhaud in Aspen, Colo., where his first opera, The Women, to his own libretto, was performed when he was only 19. It became clear to him that opera was his natural medium, and that the way to achieve the best results was by following the evolutionary line of Italian operatic productions characterized by the felicity of bel canto, facility of harmonic writing, and euphonious fidelity to the lyric and dramatic content of the subject. In striving to attain these objectives, Pasatieri ran the tide of mandatory inharmoniousness; while his productions were applauded by hoi polloi, they shocked music critics and other composers; one of them described Pasatieri’s music as “a stream of perfumed urine.” This attitude is akin to that taken by some toward Giannini and Menotti (interestingly, all 3 are of Italian genetic stock). From 1967 to 1969 Pasatieri taught at the Juilliard School; then was engaged at the Manhattan School of Music (1969–71); from 1980 to 1983 he was Distinguished Visiting Prof, at the Univ. of Cincinnati (Ohio) Coll.-Cons. of Music.

Works

dramatic: Opera: The Women (Aspen, Aug. 20,1965); La Divina (N.Y., March 16, 1966); Padrevia (N.Y., Nov. 18, 1967); Calvary (Seattle, April 7, 1971); The Trial of Mary Lincoln, television opera (Boston, Feb. 14, 1972); Black Widow (Seattle, March 2, 1972); The Seagull, after Chekhov (Houston, March 5,1974); Signor Deluso, after Molière’s Sganarelle (Vienna, Va., July 27, 1974); The Penitentes (Aspen, Aug. 3, 1974); Inezde Castro (Baltimore, April 1,1976); Washington Square, after Henry James (Detroit, Oct. 1, 1976); Three Sisters, after Chekov (1979; Columbus, Ohio, March 13, 1986); Before Breakfast (N.Y., Oct. 9, 1980); The Goose Girl, children’s opera (Fort Worth, Tex., Feb. 15, 1981); Maria Elena (Tucson, April 8, 1983). Piano: 2 sonatas (1976); other works. vocal:Heloise and Abelard for Soprano, Baritone, and Piano (1971); Rites de passage for Voice and Chamber Orch. or String Quartet (1974); 3 Poems of James Agee for Voice and Piano (1974); Far from Love for Soprano, Clarinet, and Piano (1976); Permit Me Voyage, cantata for Soprano, Chorus, and Orch. (1976); Mass for 4 Solo Voices, Chorus, and Orch. (1983).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire