Gideon: Fortunato

In 1958 American composer Miriam Gideon (1906–96) completed her only opera, Fortunato, based on the eponymous "tragicomic farce" by the Spanish playwrights Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero (1871–1938 and 1873–1944, respectively). Although Gideon's opera has never received a full performance and has only been available until now in a marginally legible autograph copy of the piano-vocal score, it may be regarded as a central work within Gideon's style and oeuvre and an important American operatic work of the 1950s. In addition to the fully edited piano-vocal score, the edition includes a significant introductory essay that summarizes Gideon's compositional activity during the post–World War II years, her most active period. The essay also provides a context for Gideon's opera by examining attitudes toward women composers in the American 1950s and by placing the opera's main themes into dialogue with recently discovered personal writings by the composer.