Press Clippings
"I’ve been listening to the music of Michael Valenti for more than 20 years now and I never cease to be amazed by his capacity for melody. The man loves good tunes and can’t help turning them out. Other composers are coyer, trickier, more intricate. They make you come to them. Not Michael.
Whether he’s writing a ballad for a Broadway musical, a rousing march for the Goldman Band or a stately processional to mark the arrival of Pope John Paul II in New York’s Central Park, he puts his heart on the line each time….
Indeed, if all he wrote were pretty tunes, our appetite for his work would be quickly satiated. But the prettiness is only skin deep.
In Michael’s hands, the sumptuous musical pastry comes with a bitter-sweet aftertaste, the exultation of gladness carries in it a cry of anguish, and even the glitteriest musical strains are destined to be swallowed up in the darkness of an empty theater or the cold night."
David Richards
Former drama critic of The New York Times
and The Washington Post
"I know of no one working in the theatre today who writes more beautiful, more unabashedly romantic, and more satisfying melodic music than Michael Valenti.
The two dozen songs in “LOVESONG” a review of his work produced several years ago Off Broadway were impressive, not only for their uncommonly high quality, but also for their stylistic variety. “Mademoiselle Colombe” was one of the highlights of the 87/88 season.
“OH BROTHER!” a musical comedy, he wrote with Donald Driver, is an inspired creation, of the genre of “A FUNNY THING HAPPENED…” but even more deliciously silly and with a better score; its commercial failure on Broadway in 1981 is one of the great injustices in theatrical history."
Roy Sander
Backstage drama critic
“LOVESONG” opened last night at the Top of the Village Gate, and it is a charming and beguiling garland of poetry and music. With this songbag, Valenti proves that he is one of our most versatile and distinguished composers."
Emory Lewis
The Bergen Record
“…a fresh, delightful and inventive musical for, yes wonder of wonders, children!
I’m speaking of “SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS”, a thoroughly diverting and remarkably tuneful variation of the famed little classic…bursting with invention, originality and, perhaps most extraordinary of all, a musical score that ranks with much that is heard in the major Broadway houses."
Stanley Richards
Players Magazine
"In this lovely show, all those for whom the tale of Snow White, among other things, begins and ends in Walt Disney’s interpretation will not be disappointed…a flawless production."
The Village Voice
“Somewhere in the dictionary there is a word that describes “LOVESONG” by Michael Valenti, but for now we’ll have to settle for perfect."
Chip Orton
Cue Magazine
“LOVESONG” is a notable achievement for Michael Valenti, a composer who is fast becoming one of the most respected newcomers for Broadway, especially among his peers. His work has a mellifluous and haunting, totally original quality.
For those who are forever lamenting the dearth of young composers writing for the musical theater, Valenti is an optimistic note on the horizon."
Patrick Pacheco
“SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS” opened at Theater East two years ago and is still one of the best children’s shows in town. Without slavishly following the Disney film (the dwarfs here are more like the lost boys in “Peter Pan” than little old men), Elsa Rael’s script and Michael Valenti’s score find much of the film’s charm…
Snow White is fresh and unsticky…the Queen is superb – an elegant, damned creature whose desperate race to stay ‘the fairest of them all’ has contemporary relevance that won’t escape sensitive kids…”
Dan Sullivan
The New York Times