The first recording in almost 40 years of this opera commissioned for radio.

Even for those of a “certain age” (i.e., baby-boomers) who never followed classical music, there is the indelible memory of “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” Menotti’s warm, wonderful Christmas opera, one of the first commissioned for television’s early days. Some dozen years earlier, the composer, only 27, had been commissioned by the same company for the very first opera for radio, “The Old Maid and the Thief.” Menotti began writing songs at an early age and studied at the Curtis Institute where he began a lifelong friendship with Samuel Barber, won a Pulitzer Prize for his first full-length opera “The Consul,” and oversaw the famed Spoleto Festival, beginning in 1958. Menotti’s delicate, tuneful music was almost a modern counterpart to the music of Rossini, full of high spirits, color and equal amounts of drama. This first recording of “The Old Maid and The Thief” in nearly 40 years is a wonderful memorial for the composer who died earlier this year.