Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s operatic swansong The Importance of Being Earnest (first performed in 1962) may well be the quirkiest bit of music theater ever conceived. Written for eight singers, two pianos, and percussion, the score preserves Oscar Wilde’s “Trivial Comedy for Serious People” virtually intact. Perhaps with a tip of the hat to the serious, Castelnuovo-Tedesco peppers Wilde’s brittle zingers with cheeky nonstop allusions to Don Giovanni, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Aida, and much, much more. (Word has it that he footnoted everything in the score. But try to get your hands on it.) And who, you ask, was Castelnuovo-Tedesco? Born in Florence in 1895, he belonged to the generation of displaced Jewish composers from Europe who found refuge in Hollywood. His vast catalogue includes 200 soundtracks for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer plus The Loves of Carmen for Rita Hayworth’s Beckworth Productions; (separate) concertos for the violin and cello titans Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky; some 100 indispensable classics for guitar; other operas, including a Merchant of Venice; and plenty more. As a movie composer and teacher of movie composers, Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s influence on the likes of Henry Mancini and John Williams was profound. A meticulous craftsman, he completed The Importance of Being Earnest in parallel English and Italian editions of equal authenticity, said to differ in significant musical details. For the sake of Wilde’s pun in the title, Earnest’s Italian counterpart answers to Franco. —Matthew Gurewitsch