About the work
The Medium is a two-act opera by Gian Carlo Menotti to his own English libretto, commissioned by Columbia University. It premiered on May 8, 1946, at the Brander Matthews Theatre in New York; Menotti drew on a séance he had witnessed in St. Wolfgang, Austria, in 1936.
Plot
The fraudulent medium Madame Flora runs séances in New York with her daughter Monica and the mute foundling Toby. During a sitting she believes she feels a real ghostly hand at her throat and slides into drink and paranoia. In a fit of terror she fires at a moving curtain and accidentally kills Toby.
Cultural significance
Received coolly at first, the opera became a hit after Arturo Toscanini praised it, running to sold-out houses for over six months; Menotti's own 1951 film version won a special prize at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.