CORIGLIANO'S big score.

When composer John Corigliano heard his name announced as the Oscar winner for Best Original Score at the Academy Awards on March 26, he was truly stunned. American Beauty, he says, was considered a shoo-in, and few people had seen the Canadian film The Red Violin, for which he wrote the music. "I went to the awards event with my lover, Mark Adamo, and we were just going to enjoy the evening and go to parties. It was a total shock," Corigliano recalls, still in awe of the fact that he was handed a gold statuette.

Classical-music cognoscenti were perhaps less shocked, given that Corigliano is considered one of the leading composers of our era. In fact, he had been nominated once before by the Academy: in 1981, for the score for Altered States. In that project, he says, "I pulled out all the stops of my experimental side because it was a wild film." For The Red Violin, Corigliano made a 180-degree turn--toward traditional lyric romanticism and Paganini-style string virtuosity.

Corigliano's versatility as a film composer is reflected in his classical career as well. He has produced symphonies, song cycles, chamber music, and a commissioned work for the Metropolitan Opera, The Ghosts of Versailles, which had its triumphant premiere in 1991. Nonetheless, he says, there's no Mozartean prolificacy in his creative process: "I am a very slow composer. When I do compose I put everything I can into it. Therefore, when I finish that piece, I want to do something completely different. Otherwise I'd blow it."

In the case of Corigliano's Symphony No. 1 in 1990, inspiration came promptly. A request for a newly commissioned work for Sir George Solti of the Chicago Symphony coincided with Corigliano's grief over the number of friends he had lost to AIDS--"I stopped counting after 100," he says. At its premiere John Rockwell of The New York Times called the symphony "a major new orchestral score ... by turns anguished, hysterical, and deeply moving." The last movement provided a spin-off cantata, 1993's Of Rage and Remembrance, arranged for a male chorus, with libretto by playwright William Hoffman.

Aside from these works, Corigliano says his homosexuality has never impacted his career. "I'm commissioned to write pieces," he says, "and people seem to be very warm to me."

Upcoming projects for Corigliano include a symphony for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a ballet for the San Francisco Ballet, and a concerto based on The Red Violin themes in addition to his recently premiered song cycle set to verses of Bob Dylan.

His first priority, however, is his relationship with Adamo, who is also a talented composer. "Being a composer is wonderful," Corigliano says. "But having a happy relationship is the most wonderful thing any human being could ever want. I feel blessed."

Carman also writes for The New York Times.