Celebrate Dominick Argento’s Birthday with Casanova’s Homecoming

Tune in to Classical MPR’s broadcast at 7pm on Tuesday, October 27

Whether it’s lakes and the State Fair or Prince and Bob Dylan, Minnesotans love an excuse to brag about where they’re from. Although born in Pennsylvania, Dominick Argento — one of the most renowned American composers of this century — spent much of his life as a Minnesota transplant, and opera lovers around the state have adopted Argento as their own as much as he embraced the state of Minnesota.

In celebration of what would have been his 93rd birthday, Classical MPR will air an audio broadcast of MN Opera’s 2009 production of Argento’s Casanova’s Homecoming, a delightful farce based on the memoirs of the legendary adventurer Giacomo Casanova.

Following Argento’s passing in February of 2019, Minnesota and the greater opera-sphere lost a giant of a composer with a penchant for literature. Known for his emphasis on the human voice and his rich melodies, Argento gained a reputation early on as a gifted composer during the 1960s. It wasn’t until his chamber opera titled Postcard from Morocco in 1971 when he truly broke through and became a household name in the modern opera world.

Postcard from Morocco went on to be staged around the world, solidifying Argento’s status as one of the premiere composers of his generation. But despite his newfound global success, he stuck close to his roots as a Minnesota transplant.

“I do think of myself as a Minnesota composer,” he told Star Tribune’s Terry Blain in a 2017 interview. “I used to joke that I didn’t unpack my bags for two years. But in those two years I learned to love the Twin Cities.”

Argento’s local ties don’t stop there, though. In addition to composing for nearly every major Twin Cities musical organization — including the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis and the Guthrie Theater — Argento also taught composition and music theory at the University of Minnesota from 1958 to 1997.

Leighton Kerner, a former writer for Village Voice, summed up Dominick Argento’s communal affiliation nicely nearly 35 years ago: “Dominick Argento is probably the American closest to England’s Benjamin Britten in living out the idea and ideal of a composer functioning as a useful member of a community.”

Argento was also known for his admiration of literature and poetry. Much of his work found inspiration from some of the greatest writers to ever put pen to paper, such as Edgar Allen Poe and Virginia Woolf.

In 1975, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his song cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, a form of composition he favored during the 1970s and ‘80s.

Above all, however, Dominick Argento’s writing and composition was deeply human.

“My interest is people,” he told Mary Ann Feldman in 2002. “I am committed to working with characters, feelings and emotions.”

Much of that interest was tied to humankind’s capacity for appreciating beauty, a quality for which his 13 operas and other works have become renowned.

“For me, art is all about beauty and edification,” he told Terry Blain in 2017. “One of the characteristics of humans is that they can understand and appreciate beauty. And I think it’s always been the role of art to satisfy that part of us.”

Join MN Opera in celebrating Dominick Argento’s storied career by tuning in to Classical MPR at 7pm on Tuesday, October 27 for the airing of Casanova’s Homecoming on what would have been his 93rd birthday.