Martin's Lie is a chamber opera

Chamber opera

Chamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra.The term and form were invented by Benjamin Britten in the 1940s, when the English Opera Group needed works that could easily be taken on tour and performed in a variety of small...

 in 1 Act with music and an English language libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by Gian Carlo Menotti

Gian Carlo Menotti

Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...

. Commissioned by CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

, it was Menotti's third opera for television after Amahl and the Night Visitors

Amahl and the Night Visitors

Amahl and the Night Visitors is an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti with an original English libretto by the composer. It was commissioned by NBC and first performed by the NBC Opera Theatre on December 24, 1951, in New York City at NBC studio 8H in Rockefeller Center, where it was broadcast...

and Labyrinth

Labyrinth (opera)

Labyrinth is an opera in one act by composer Gian Carlo Menotti. The work was commissioned for television by the NBC Opera Theatre and uses an English language libretto by the composer. Unlike Menotti's previous television operas, such as Amahl and the Night Visitors, this opera was written with...

. Although not initially conceived as a work for the stage, the opera premiered in a live theatrical performance on 3 June 1964 at the Bristol Cathedral

Bristol Cathedral

The Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity is the Church of England cathedral in the city of Bristol, England, and is commonly known as Bristol Cathedral...

 for the opening of the 17th annual Bath International Music Festival

Bath International Music Festival

The Bath International Music Festival, also known as the Bath Music Fest, is held each summer in Bath, South West England. Inaugurated in 1948, the festival includes many genres such as orchestral, contemporary jazz, folk and electronica...

. The opera was subsequently filmed with the same cast for television under the direction of Kirk Browning

Kirk Browning

Kirk Browning was an American television director and producer who had hundreds of productions to his credit, including 185 broadcasts of Live from Lincoln Center....

. The production used sets and costumes by designer Anthony Powell

Anthony Powell (designer)

Anthony Powell is an English costume designer for stage and screen.-Awards:* Academy Award for Best Costume Design – 1973, 1979, 1981* BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design – 1979...

, and was broadcast nationally by CBS for the opera's United States premiere on 30 May 1965.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 3 June 1964 (Conductor: Lawrence Leonard Lawrence Leonard Lawrence Leonard was a British conductor, cellist, composer, teacher and writer.Leonard received his musical education at the Royal Academy of Music and the École Normale de Musique de Paris... )
Martin	boy soprano Boy soprano A boy soprano is a young male singer with an unchanged voice in the soprano range. Although a treble, or choirboy, may also be considered to be a boy soprano, the more colloquial term boy soprano is generally only used for boys who sing, perform, or record as soloists, and who may not necessarily...	Michael Wennink
Stranger	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...	Donald McIntyre Donald McIntyre This page is about the singer. For others of similar name see Donald MacIntyreSir Donald McIntyre, CBE is a celebrated operatic bass-baritone. He made his formal debut as Zaccaria in Nabucco, at the Welsh National Opera, in 1959...
Naninge, a nurse	mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...	Noreen Berry
Father Cornelius	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...	William McAlpine
Sheriff	bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...	Otakar Kraus Otakar Kraus Otakar Kraus was a Czech , operatic baritone and teacher.He was born in Prague and studied there with Konrad Wallerstein and in Milan with Fernando Carpi. He himself was the teacher of a number of important British basses, including Robert Lloyd, Willard White, John Tomlinson and Gwynne Howell...
Christopher	boy soprano	Keith Collins
Timothy	boy soprano	Roger Nicholas
Executioner	silent role	Hugh Smith Marriott
Soldiers	silent roles
Orphans (children's chorus)