Three major works written during his years at Eastman were performed at the festivals of American Music. The opera buffa 'The Boor' (1957), the ballet 'The Resurrection of Don Juan' (1956), and a concerto for Soprano and Orchestra 'Ode to the West Wind.' these works have been performed in subsequent years at the festivals as well as elsewhere (Program Notes, 1991).
For the University of Minnesota, Argento composed the chamber opera 'Christopher Sly.' He was instrumental in the formation of the Center Opera Company and was commissioned to write its inaugural work, 'The Masque of Angels' (1962). The suite 'Royal Invitation' (1964) was a commission for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, while 'Variations for Orchestra' (1965) and 'The Revelation of St. John the Divine' (1966) were commissions from the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis and the Luther Theological Seminary, respectively. Argento's close association with Sir Tyrone Guthrie and Douglas Campell, Directors of the Minnesota Theatre Company led to his composing incidental music for several Guthrie productions, as well as a ballad opera, 'The Shoemaker's Holiday' (1967) (Program Notes, 1991).
Mr. Argento worked increasingly in the song-cycle form throughout the 1960's and 1970's while still working in operatic and orchestral mediums. His major song-cycles include: 'Letters from Composers' (1968), 'To Be Sung on the Water' (1973), and 'From the Diary of Virginia Woolf' (awarded the Pulitzer Prizefor Music in 1975). Argento has maintained his position as the preeminent composer of contemporary American opera with works such as 'Postcard from Morocco' (1971), the monodrama 'A Waterbird Talk' (1974), 'The Voyage of Edgar Allen Poe' (1976), 'Miss Havisham's Fire' (1979), 'Miss Havisham's Wedding Night' - another monodrama - (1981), 'Casanovas Homecoming' (1985), and 'The Aspern Papers' (1988). Recent orchestral works include 'Fire Variations' (1982) and 'Le T'ombeau D'Edgar Poe' (1985) (Program Notes, 1991).
Dominick Argento's musical language is evidently one of the 20th Century, but by no means atonal. During his schooling he was exposed to a range of styles that would stifle a composer unsure of what he wanted to say. To Argento's basically post-romantic tendencies have come self-imposed restrictions of classical forms; to his essentially tonal thinking has come his own adaptation of the 12-tone row as a never-ending source of motivic and melodic variation. He combines stylistic arsenals of many periods: major/minor duality, folk-like tunes, polytonality, dodecaphonic melody, tone clusters, motor rhythms, and triadic harmony to create a style that has come to characterize Dominick Argento's music. With the exception of openly entertaining divertimenti as 'Homage to the Queen of Tonga' and the clarinet concerto 'Rossini in Paris,' this style has been evident since his third orchestral work, 'The Mask of Night.' Singers are often surprised to find that Argento's uncomplicated and memorable melodies are indeed based on a 12-tone row; and critics prone to regard the accessibility of his most complex scores as "nothing new." Argento's ingenious and sometimes formidable structures flatter the ear as being uncomplicated (Sutcliffe, 1991).