The Telephone
E839708
The Telephone is a one-act comic opera by Gian Carlo Menotti that humorously explores how constant telephone interruptions disrupt personal relationships.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Telephone canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10072764 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Telephone Context triple: [Gian Carlo Menotti, notableWork, The Telephone]
-
A.
Bless the Telephone
"Bless the Telephone" is a song by English singer-songwriter Labi Siffre, known for its gentle, intimate reflection on love and connection.
-
B.
Telephone City
Telephone City is the nickname of Brantford, Ontario, reflecting its historical association with Alexander Graham Bell and the early development of the telephone.
-
C.
Baby Bells
The Baby Bells were regional telephone companies created from the 1984 breakup of AT&T’s Bell System, which took over local phone service in different parts of the United States.
-
D.
Landline
Landline is a 2017 American comedy-drama film set in 1990s New York City that follows a family dealing with infidelity and personal upheaval, starring Jenny Slate.
-
E.
A Telephone Call
"A Telephone Call" is a darkly comic short story by Dorothy Parker that portrays a woman's obsessive anxiety as she waits for a man to call her.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Telephone Target entity description: The Telephone is a one-act comic opera by Gian Carlo Menotti that humorously explores how constant telephone interruptions disrupt personal relationships.
-
A.
Bless the Telephone
"Bless the Telephone" is a song by English singer-songwriter Labi Siffre, known for its gentle, intimate reflection on love and connection.
-
B.
Telephone City
Telephone City is the nickname of Brantford, Ontario, reflecting its historical association with Alexander Graham Bell and the early development of the telephone.
-
C.
Baby Bells
The Baby Bells were regional telephone companies created from the 1984 breakup of AT&T’s Bell System, which took over local phone service in different parts of the United States.
-
D.
Landline
Landline is a 2017 American comedy-drama film set in 1990s New York City that follows a family dealing with infidelity and personal upheaval, starring Jenny Slate.
-
E.
A Telephone Call
"A Telephone Call" is a darkly comic short story by Dorothy Parker that portrays a woman's obsessive anxiety as she waits for a man to call her.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
one-act comic opera
ⓘ
opera ⓘ |
| alternativeTitle | The Telephone; or, L'Amour à trois NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| commissionedBy | Columbia University NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| composer | Gian Carlo Menotti NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| dramaticConflict | Ben’s inability to propose because of constant phone interruptions ⓘ |
| duration | approximately 20–25 minutes ⓘ |
| firstPerformanceLanguage | English ⓘ |
| firstProducer | Columbia Theatre Associates NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| firstPublisher | G. Schirmer, Inc. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| genre | comic opera ⓘ |
| hasDevice | telephone ⓘ |
| hasInstrumentation |
brass
ⓘ
percussion ⓘ piano ⓘ strings ⓘ woodwinds ⓘ |
| hasRole |
Ben, her suitor
ⓘ
Lucy, a young woman obsessed with the telephone ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| librettist | Gian Carlo Menotti NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| mainCharacter |
Ben
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Lucy NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| medium | stage work ⓘ |
| notableRecording | RCA Victor recording conducted by Gian Carlo Menotti ⓘ |
| numberOfActs | 1 ⓘ |
| orchestration | small orchestra ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| pairedWithAtPremiere | The Medium NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| period | 20th-century opera ⓘ |
| plotSummary | Ben attempts to propose marriage to Lucy but is repeatedly interrupted by telephone calls. ⓘ |
| premiereDate | 1947-02-18 ⓘ |
| premierePlace | Heckscher Theater, New York City NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| resolution | Ben finally proposes to Lucy by telephone ⓘ |
| setting | Lucy’s apartment ⓘ |
| structure | continuous one-act ⓘ |
| style | lyric, tonal, neoclassical ⓘ |
| subject |
comic treatment of modern communication
ⓘ
satire of social dependence on the telephone ⓘ telephone as a comic device ⓘ |
| theme |
communication and miscommunication
ⓘ
impact of technology on personal relationships ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfComposition | mid-1940s ⓘ |
| vocalForces |
baritone
ⓘ
soprano ⓘ |
| workNumber | no opus number ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Telephone Description of subject: The Telephone is a one-act comic opera by Gian Carlo Menotti that humorously explores how constant telephone interruptions disrupt personal relationships.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.