Dominick Argento b. 1927

Dominick Argento is considered to be America's leading composer of lyric opera * Has written thirteen operas; most have been performed in both Europe and the U.S. * The majority of his music is vocal; all of it, instrumental and vocal, displays a natural dramatic impulse * In a predominantly tonal context, his music freely combines tonality, atonality and 12-tone writing * Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for his song cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolf

Works by Dominick Argento include:
Postcard from Morocco (1971) opera in one act
Casa Guidi (1983) five songs for mezzo-soprano and orchestra
Miss Havisham's Fire (1979, rev.2000) opera in two acts with prologue and epilogue

"I think that music ... began as an emotional language. For me, all music begins where speech stops." — Dominick Argento