History of Spoleto Festival USA: Menotti, Charleston and a Festival That Stayed
Why does a festival in South Carolina carry the name of a hill town in Umbria? The history of Spoleto Festival USA answers that question, and then tells of a famous founder, a bitter split with him, and a festival that kept its name and its city.
Quick answer
What is the history of Spoleto Festival USA?
Spoleto Festival USA was founded in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1977 by composer Gian Carlo Menotti, with Christopher Keene and others, as the American twin of the Festival of Two Worlds he had started in Spoleto, Italy, in 1958. After a long dispute with its board, Menotti left in 1993, but the festival stayed in Charleston.
The Festival of Two Worlds, 1958
“In 1958 he founded the Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of Two Worlds) in the medieval Italian hill town of Spoleto,” Playbill’s 2007 obituary of Gian Carlo Menotti recalls. The idea was “to bring together gifted young musicians, dancers and theater artists from the Old and New Worlds (Europe and the U.S.)”
The first festival opened on June 5, 1958, with Verdi’s Macbeth directed by Luchino Visconti. A year later the town made Menotti an honorary citizen, and the press called him the Duke of Spoleto. From 1960 its midday concerts were led by Charles Wadsworth, a name that matters later in this story.
Why Charleston
“Menotti’s plan was always to establish a twin event in the United States,” Playbill notes. The push came from Washington. In 1972, by the account of CVNC’s overview of the 25th Spoleto Festival USA, the new National Endowment for the Arts turned down the Italian festival’s funding request but “urged Menotti to establish a similar festival in the southeastern United States”.
Charleston was on the list. Christopher Keene, then Spoleto’s music director, visited, and Wadsworth already knew the city. Menotti chose it “in part because of its Old World charm and its easy accessibility.” The festival’s own words are warmer: “Looking for a city that would provide the charm of Spoleto as well as its wealth of theaters, churches and other performances spaces, Menotti selected Charleston as the ideal location.”
Two local champions made it happen: the young mayor, Joseph P. Riley, Jr., and Theodore Stern, head of the College of Charleston.
The first season, 1977
The first Spoleto Festival USA opened in 1977 with Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades and Menotti’s own opera The Consul, which he directed himself at the Gaillard Municipal Auditorium. The theatre bill included Ernest Ferlita’s Black Medea and Simon Gray’s Molly, and there were Sicilian puppets too.
The Philanthropy Roundtable sums up the outcome: “The first Spoleto Festival USA in 1977 was a success, and Charleston became its permanent home.” In 1979 the City of Charleston added Piccolo Spoleto, its companion festival of “more than 500 events, most of them free”.
A festival that took risks
The new festival premiered serious work early. Its list of world premieres includes “Tennessee Williams’s Creve Coeur (1978); Arthur Miller’s The American Clock (1980); Laurie Anderson’s Empty Places (1989),” and Philip Glass’s Hydrogen Jukebox in 1990.
Theater in 1983: Mabou Mines and a Walkman maze
The 1983 theatre programme shows how far the festival reached. Beside a Goldoni comedy, it booked Mabou Mines, the New York experimental troupe, and a Walkman piece from California.
| Production | Company or author | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| I Pettegolezzi Delle Donne | Carlo Goldoni (American premiere) | Garden Theatre |
| Dead End Kids | Mabou Mines, directed by JoAnne Akalaitis | Dock Street Theatre |
| Artery | Antenna Theater, directed by Chris Hardman, music by Al Agius-Sinerco | Mangel’s (as the festival lists it) |
| Empress Eugenie | Jason Lindsey, with Margaret Rawlings (American premiere) | Dock Street Theatre |
Artery, Antenna Theater’s Walkman maze, sent visitors one at a time through a 17-room maze with a Sony Walkman, a form explored in theatre made for one visitor at a time. The photograph above shows a later staging, in San Diego in 2000, not Charleston.
The year needs a note, because Antenna’s own chronology lists “1984: Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC.” But Spoleto’s program history puts Artery in the 1983 season, and The Mexico City News reported in October 1983 that “Artery has recently been offered at the Spoleto U.S.A. Festival, in Charleston, S.C.” Two independent sources agree on 1983, so that is the date used here.
The break with Menotti, 1990 to 1993
Trouble began in 1990, Reuters reported, “when board members, many of them prominent Charleston residents, began asking if Menotti had arranged, in the manner of corporate executives, for his own eventual replacement.” That year Menotti told reporters he was being “treated like the clerk”. Donations fell by half, “from $2.4 million in 1991 to $1.2 million” the following year.
In October 1993 Menotti announced he was pulling the festival out of Charleston, blaming “the huge, bickering and ineffectual board of directors”. CVNC adds a dispute over the visual arts and “strong local resistance to his choice of his adopted son, Chip, as his successor.” The festival did not follow him: “the board had the foresight to secure the trademark for the Spoleto Festival USA name, and Menotti left in defeat in 1993.”
Mayor Riley said an arts festival would remain in Charleston, and several key musicians stayed, Wadsworth among them. Menotti died in Monaco on February 1, 2007, aged 95.
Spoleto since: Redden, Hanna and Omar
By its 25th year, in 2001, the festival had “$18 million banked toward an endowment goal of $25 million.” Longtime general director Nigel Redden guided it for decades, and in July 2021 Mena Mark Hanna was named to succeed him.
The Philanthropy Roundtable describes “a 17-day phenomenon, with more than 700 events attended by up to 80,000 people” and “more than 200 world or American premieres”. The most decorated recent one is Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’ Omar, which premiered at Spoleto in 2022 and won the Pulitzer Prize. The festival also renovated its venues, among them the Dock Street Theatre and the Charleston Gaillard Center.
Spoleto Festival USA in dates
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| June 5, 1958 | Festival of Two Worlds opens in Spoleto, Italy, with Visconti’s Macbeth |
| 1972 | The NEA urges Menotti to start a festival in the American Southeast |
| 1977 | First Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston |
| 1978 | World premiere of Tennessee Williams’s Creve Coeur |
| 1979 | Piccolo Spoleto begins |
| 1983 | Theater season with Mabou Mines’s Dead End Kids and Antenna’s Artery |
| 1990 to 1993 | Dispute with the board; Menotti leaves in 1993 |
| 2001 | 25th season |
| 2007 | Menotti dies, aged 95 |
| 2021 | Mena Mark Hanna succeeds Nigel Redden |
| 2022 | Omar premieres; it later wins the Pulitzer Prize |
Antenna’s other festival stages of the period are traced in the history of the Cervantino Festival, the history of the BAM Next Wave Festival and the history of the Bay Area Playwrights Festival.
Frequently asked questions
Why is a Charleston festival called Spoleto?
Gian Carlo Menotti founded it in 1977 as the American twin of the Festival of Two Worlds he had started in Spoleto, Italy, in 1958.
Why did Menotti leave Spoleto Festival USA?
A dispute with the board that began in 1990 over control, succession and money. In 1993 he announced he was pulling out, but the board held the festival’s name and it stayed in Charleston.
What is Piccolo Spoleto?
The City of Charleston’s companion festival, running since 1979, with more than 500 mostly free events.
Did experimental theatre play Spoleto?
Yes. The 1983 theater programme included Mabou Mines’s Dead End Kids and Antenna Theater’s Artery, a maze walked alone with a Sony Walkman.
Artery’s full touring record has its place in Antenna’s full chronology.