The Consul premiered on March 1, 1950, at Philadelphia's Schubert Theater; this functioned as a test run for the Broadway premiere of March 15, 1950, at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, which subsequently ran for 269 performances. The phenomenally successful work was eventually staged throughout Europe, translated into a dozen languages, and awarded the 1950 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best musical play, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

The Consul is set in a totalitarian state in which John Sorel is a political dissident, fighting for a democratic government. The secret police force him to leave the country and Magda, his wife, must obtain a visa to leave the country and join him. Insurmountable bureaucracy in the form of a stone-faced Secretary and piles of paperwork cause frustrating delays at the consulate, where there seems to be no Consul. During the ensuing months, Magda's baby and mother-in-law die and she learns from a messenger, Assan, that her husband, after hearing about the baby's death, is returning to take Magda with him. Magda, knowing that her husband will be captured if he returns, writes a note to him stating that she is going to kill herself, eliminating the need for him to risk his life. As she commits suicide by gas inhalation in her home, John enters the consulate and is apprehended by the secret police.

In 1950, Eastern European nations were preventing their citizens from crossing their borders and in the United States, the McCarron Act prevented foreigners with "questionable" political views from entering the country. Even if someone were to leave an oppressive, totalitarian regime, the chances of entering the perceived Utopia of the United States were slim. The countless forms, endless waiting, denial of movement, and political oppression portrayed in The Consul struck a chord with many viewers—especially Europeans.

As in most of Menotti's works, the musical material is predominantly tonal, with some modal inflections. However, there is considerably greater use of dissonance, evident from the very beginning of the opera. Menotti described The Consul not as an opera but as a "music drama," confirming his affinity with Wagner—in approach if not style; this is clear also in his belief that opera descended from the ancient Greek conception of theater, in which music, movement, and language were united. Thus, an opera should not be a string of arias, but must consist of a heightened recitative, with phrases that heighten the import of the words. Clearly, there is nothing new in this idea—and there is nothing new in Menotti's attempt to achieve his goal. Nevertheless, the composer's fusion of word and sound is effective. The most impressive number is Magda's aria, To this we've come: that men withhold the world from men, a passionate denunciation of the reduction of people to numbers that closes the second act.

© John Palmer, All Music Guide

The Consul (opera; in Italian)

The action takes place in Magda Sorel's home and in a consulate in a large, unnamed city in Europe, in "the present."



Act One

Magda Sorel's meager and decaying apartment

The curtain rises on the dark and vacant interior of Magda's apartment; the windows are open. From the café below comes the sound of a recording of a French popular song. The orchestra plays stridently as John Sorel quickly enters the apartment. He falls to the living room floor. A member of a group of "freedom fighters," John was wounded when a meeting of the group was raided by the secret police. From the other side of the living room a surprised Magda, John's wife, and John's Mother enter and attend to John. When the police arrive at the apartment, however, John must hide.

The police, having found nothing, leave the apartment, and John comes out of hiding. He tells his wife and mother that he must find his way to another country and that Magda should go to the consulate and apply for a visa.

At the consulate, Magda and John's mother wait and endure endless bureaucracy. Although Magda begs the Secretary to let her see the Consul, the Consul never appears. Other people at the consulate are experiencing the same problems, and Magda talks with some of them, particularly the Magician Nika Magadoff.



Act Two

The consulate

Through the windows pours, once again, the recording of the French popular song. Magda sleeps and has a terrible nightmare as John's mother sings a lullaby to Magda's very sick baby. The calm is shattered as a rock breaks one of the windows. This is a signal for Magda and John's mother to send for Assan, a glass cutter, who is supposed to have information about John. Before Assan arrives, however, a member of the secret police shows up and upsets Magda. Assan then tells Magda that her husband is hiding in the mountains. As this transpires, Magda's baby dies.

Later, the Magician performs magic tricks and hypnotizes the people in the waiting room, making them dance a waltz. Magda again tries her luck with the Secretary and ends up in a violent argument, which leads to her aria "To this we've come." After the solo, the Secretary tells Magda she may see the Consul after he is finished with his current visitor. When this visitor leaves, Magda sees that it is the agent from the secret police and she falls to the ground, unconscious.



Act Three

The consulate

Everyone assembled is still waiting. One of the group, Vera Boronel, actually succeeds in securing the papers she needs. While this is happening, Assan tells Magda that her husband now plans to come back home. Frightened and confused, Magda writes a note for her husband that contains what she believes will be a solution to their problems. She sends Assan off with the note, then leaves the consulate quickly, forgetting her purse. Unexpectedly, John arrives, and he is immediately arrested. John asks the Secretary to call his wife, which the Secretary says she will do as soon as possible. At home, Magda prepares to commit suicide by inhaling gas so that John need not return home. In the process, she experiences fantastic hallucinations involving John, John's mother, and all the people she saw in the waiting room at the consulate, whom the Magician leads in a dance of death. Just as Magda dies, the telephone in the apartment rings.

© All Music Guide