One Christmas season when I was in grade school our music teacher introduced us to the opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” A new production was about to be broadcast (on NBC even, not PBS!) and she wanted us to watch it. As she was describing the plot and playing us some of the music I assumed it was by just another one of those long dead composers. But actually the opera was composed by Gian Carlo Menotti and first performed in 1951. And Menotti was very much alive at the time. He died Thursday at the age of 95. (NY Times obit)