About the work
The Telephone, or The Love of Three is a one-act opera buffa by Gian Carlo Menotti to his own English libretto. Menotti wrote it in 1946/47 as a short companion piece to his opera The Medium; it premiered on February 18, 1947, at the Heckscher Theatre in New York, presented by Ballet Society.
Plot
Ben visits his girlfriend Lucy's apartment to propose, but she keeps answering the telephone — for a chatty friend, a wrong number, the time service, and a jealous suitor. Frustrated, Ben leaves, then calls Lucy from a phone booth and finally succeeds in proposing over the line.
Cultural significance
The brief comedy is still frequently paired with The Medium in performance, as it was on Broadway in 1947; critics have praised its sharp musical humor about the pitfalls of telephony.