About the work
The Consul is a three-act opera by Gian Carlo Menotti to his own English libretto, his first full-length opera. It had its tryout on March 1, 1950, at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia, followed by its New York opening on March 15, 1950, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, where it ran for 269 performances.
Plot
In an unnamed totalitarian country, resistance fighter John Sorel plans to flee abroad and asks his wife Magda to join him with an exit visa. Magda is repeatedly turned away at the consulate amid forms and waiting rooms while their child dies and John is captured by the secret police. In the end Magda takes her own life as the telephone rings unanswered with a call from her husband.
Cultural significance
The opera won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best musical, and early Cold War audiences read it as an allegory of restrictive visa policy and bureaucratic indifference.