Stadium Scoreboard

Composer Gian-Carlo Menotti, 41, won another accolade last week: a whole concert given over to his music in Manhattan's Lewisohn Stadium. There were selections from his operas Amelia Goes to the Ball, The Consul, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Island God, The Old Maid and the Thief, as well as part of his ballet Sebastian and his Piano Concerto. By the end of the evening, Menotti had proved again that he is one of the most melodious composers of the day and a natural for a summer evening outdoors. Thomas Schippers. 22, led the Menotti program with perception and skill.

Winding up its 27-concert season last week, Lewisohn had also proved that popular music is still popular, consistently drawing more listeners than highbrow events. The Kern-Hammerstein night played to 19,000. the Gershwin night to 18,500. The best draws (17,500) among the classical programs: 1) Contralto Marian Anderson; 2) the combination of Beethoven's music, the conducting of Pierre Monteux and the violin playing of Yehudi Menuhin.

The season also brought one notable triumph to the stadium's bustling guardian genius, Mrs. Charles S. ("Minnie") Guggenheimer, 70, in her running battle with the weather (five concerts rained out) and airplanes. After a series of appeals to La Guardia Field, pilots agreed to cooperate by routing their nights away from the stadium during the concerts, and the number of pianissimo passages drowned out by droning engines overhead went down from 14 (on opening night) to an average of two a night at the end of the season.

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