Beni Montresor was a versatile Italian artist, opera and film director, set designer, author and children's book illustrator. He won the Caldecott Medal

Caldecott Medal

The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children , a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published that year. The award was named in honor of nineteenth-century English...

 in 1965 for May I Bring a Friend?

May I Bring a Friend?

May I Bring a Friend? is a 1964 book by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers. It tells the story of a boy who gets invited to the king and queen's palace over and over. The first time he goes, he asks if he can bring a friend. When they say yes, he always brings some type of exotic animal...

. The Italian government knighted him in 1966 for his contributions to the arts.

Background

Montresor was particularly known in the United States as a designer of sets, lighting and costumes for opera. He designed sets and costumes for the American premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's opera, The Last Savage

The Last Savage

The Last Savage is an opera in three acts by composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Menotti wrote his own libretto, originally in the Italian language . The opera was translated into French by Jean-Pierre Marty for the work's world premiere performance at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 21 October 1963...

at the Spoleto Festival USA

Spoleto Festival USA

Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the world's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy...

 in Charleston, South Carolina. He also designed the evocative and ephemeral scenery and lighting for the Washington Opera/New York City Opera revival of the Montemezzi opera The Love of Three Kings in 1981. He was the Artistic Director of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat Costanzi Theatre, it has undergone several changes of name as well modifications and improvements...

 in 1988-1989. He directed two films,"Pilgrimage" (1972), starring Cliff De Young and"La Messe Doree" (1975), starring Lucia Bose. He was also a stage and film set designer with commissions from La Scala

La Scala

La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...

, Spoleto

Spoleto

Spoleto is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome.-History:...

, the Glyndebourne Festival, the New York City Opera

New York City Opera

The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...

 and the Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

 for productions like La Gioconda

La Gioconda (opera)

La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli set to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835...

, Esclarmonde

Esclarmonde

Esclarmonde is an opéra in four acts and eight tableaux, with prologue and epilogue, by Jules Massenet, to a French libretto by Alfred Blau and Louis Ferdinand de Gramont....

, The Last Savage

The Last Savage

The Last Savage is an opera in three acts by composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Menotti wrote his own libretto, originally in the Italian language . The opera was translated into French by Jean-Pierre Marty for the work's world premiere performance at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 21 October 1963...

, The Daughter of the Regiment, L'Elisir d'Amore

L'elisir d'amore

L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...

(Metropolitan Opera), Aida

Aida

Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...

and The Magic Flute

The Magic Flute

The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....

(New York City Opera). Montresor worked with film directors Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...

, Vittorio De Sica

Vittorio de Sica

Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....

 and Roberto Rossellini

Roberto Rossellini

Roberto Rossellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Rossellini was one of the directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing films such as Roma città aperta to the movement.-Early life:Born in Rome, Roberto Rossellini lived on the Via Ludovisi, where Benito Mussolini had...

among others.