Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the world's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi (the Festival of Two Worlds) in Spoleto, Italy. The annual 17-day late-spring event showcases both established and emerging artists in more than 150 performances of opera, dance, theater, classical music, and jazz.
When Italian organizers planned an American festival, they searched for a city that would offer the charm of Spoleto, Italy, and also its wealth of theaters, churches, and other performance spaces. Charleston was selected as an ideal location, with Menotti saying of Charleston, "It's intimate, so you can walk from one theatre to the next. It has Old World charm in architecture and gardens. Yet it's a community big enough to support the large number of visitors to the festival."[1]
The festival experienced financial problems from its outset which produced a quick turnover in leadership. On September 27, 1976, Theodore "Ted" Stern, the president of the College of Charleston at that time, was named as the new chairman of the Charleston Coordinating Committee after the departure of Hugh Lane.[2] Personality disputes also arose involving Menotti. Menotti, who had served as the artistic director for the festival since its founding, claimed in 1991 that he was not interested in renewing his three-year contract when it ended in 1992 over artistic differences.[3] The board did not officially accept his resignation immediately, but Menotti stood by his intentions, blaming artistic differences with the board and lack of personal control: "I no longer feel it is my festival, and this has been my life for 15 years. I feel a bit lonely among them. I'm treated like a clerk."[4] Menotti had a poor relationship with the festival's general manager, Nidel Redden, who challenged programming decisions, expense accounts for Menotti, and administative decisions by Menotti. Eventually, in May 1991, Menotti issued an ultimatum that either Redden and his supporters resign or Menotti would. In August 1991, Redden resigned,[5] as did 19 of the 46 board members the next month. The tumult affected the scope of the festival the following year; the budget for 1992's festival was $4.6 million, down about $1 million from 1991, and covering about 20 percent fewer presentations (103 in 1992 compared with over 120 in 1991).[6]
By 1993, personal conflicts reached a breaking point, with Menotti and the board of the Charleston festival arguing over those in charge of the festival, its artistic direction, and financing. Menotti, who had threatened the end the festival in Charleston left the festival in 1993; the local board, however, owned the rights to the name of the festival and pledged to continue it without Menotti.[7]
In July 1995, Redden was recruited to return to the festival on an interim basis to help it overcome a debt of more than $1,000,000.[8] The 1995 festival went over budget by 20%, and its full time staff was cut in half.[9]
One of the Festival's tenets is to provide young artists the opportunity to work with veteran directors, designers and performers. World-renowned artists who performed at Spoleto Festival USA early in their careers include Renée Fleming, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Yo-Yo Ma.
Each year, Spoleto Festival USA produces its own operas, which are rarely performed masterpieces by well-known composers or traditional works presented in new ways, and also presents theater, dance and music ranging from classical to jazz. Since its inception, the Festival has presented over 100 international and U.S. premieres, notably Creve Coeur by Tennessee Williams and The American Clock by Arthur Miller.
The official companion festival to Spoleto Festival USA, is operated by the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs. Whereas Spoleto Festival USA features artists and performers of national and international renown, Piccolo Spoleto highlights outstanding local and regional artists with several hundred performances throughout the city. Piccolo Spoleto is "the perfect complement to the international scope of its parent festival and its 700 events in 17 days transform Charleston into an exhilarating celebration of performing, literary and visual arts." [10]