Spoleto Festival U.S.A.

Gian Carlo Menotti, an Italian-American composer of opera, created several separate, but interrelated organizations which are represented in this archive: (1) The Festival of Two Worlds (Festival dei Due Mondi), was created in 1956 and was first held in Spoleto, Italy, in 1958. Its primary purpose was to provide young Americans with an opportunity to perform in Europe as part of a comprehensive arts festival. The board of the Italian festival is called the Association of the Festival of Two Worlds (Associazione Festival dei Due Mondi).

(2) The Festival Foundation, Inc., was created in 1957 in New York City primarily to select American performers and to raise funds to send them to Italy.

(3) The Spoleto Festival U.S.A. was created in 1976 to provide a similarly comprehensive festival in Charleston, South Carolina, and the first American festival was held in 1977. Initially, the Festival Foundation planned and supervised the American festival from New York, but in 1979 the Foundation moved to Charleston, and the same individuals served on both the local and national boards.