Menotti's Holiday Classic Shines in Cincinnati This Season

"Adoration of the Magi" by Hieronymus Bosch (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Gian-Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors" is arguably the most frequently performed opera in history.  Written expressly for television, it was premiered on Christmas Eve, 1951, live from NBC studios in Radio City Music Hall in New York City.  It was an instant success and was repeated yearly until 1966, when the Menotti, unhappy with a new production, withdrew permission for further telecasts.
   It has been heard and seen in countless venues before and since leaving the airwaves (the author remembers playing in the orchestra for a performance by the NBC cast on tour in Kentucky during the last century).
   "Amahl" can be heard and seen in Greater Cincinnati this season in Krueger Auditorium at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College in Batavia at 8 p.m. December 4 and 3 p.m. December 5.
    The opera will be staged and features vocal soloists from the U.C. College-Conservatory of Music, dancers from Bonnie Williams Dance Studio and a chorus from Northern Kentucky University.
   Music director Jaime Morales will conduct the Clermont Philharmonic Orchestra.  Stage director is Amanda Consol, with stage manager Katarina Gaines and lighting designer Nathanial Helpon.
   Admission is free and donations are welcome.  Information at www.clermontphilharmonic.com  or call (513) 732-2561.
   There will be a performance of "Amahl" at Ascension Lutheran Church, 7333 Pfeiffer Rd. in Montgomery at 7 p.m. December 11 and 12, 3 p.m. December 13.  Soprano Katherine Bergmann will sing the Mother, with Jacob Mortensen as Amahl, bass-baritone Michael Young as Melchior, baritone Tony Barkley as Balthazar and tenor David Bezona as Kaspar.  There is no charge for admission and again, donations will be accepted.  Information at www.ascensionlutheranchurch.com or call (513) 793-3288 or (513) 237-3636.
   Interestingly, the now classic opera about a crippled boy (Amahl) and his widowed mother who are visited by The Three Kings on their way to Bethlehem, has several connections to Ohio and Cincinnati history.  The original Amahl, boy soprano Chet Allen was a member of the Columbus Boychoir (founded in Columbus in 1937, re-located to Princeton, New Jersey in 1950 and renamed the American Boychoir in 1960).

cover of 2007 DVD release of 1955 "Amahl" telecast conducted by Thomas Schippers

The conductor who led the "Symphony of the Air" (also known as the NBC Symphony Orchestra, created for Toscanini) and a later run of "Amahl" at New York City Opera was Thomas Schippers, music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra from 1970-75.

cover of VHS video of 1978 "Amahl" filmed in London and the Holy Land, Jesus Lopez-Cobos conductor

Finally, the conductor who led the Philharmonia Orchestra for the 1978 production of "Amahl" featuring famed soprano Teresa Stratas was Jesus Lopez-Cobos, CSO music director from 1985-2001.
   The music of "Amahl" (less than an hour long) is lush and romantic in the tradition of Giacomo Puccini, with lots of instrumental color (star turns for the oboe), lively dancing and a real emotional impact:  Amahl's poverty-stricken mother, when she learns the three kings intend to present their lavish gifts to a newborn child, grows desperate and attempts to steal some of their gold as they are sleeping, but is caught in the act.  When Melchior forgives her and explains who the child is, she regrets her act and returns it with the wish that she had a gift of her own to send, whereupon Amahl offers his crutch, his sole possession.  Miraculously, he is cured and is allowed to continue on the journey with the kings to Bethlehem.
   Having been asked to write an opera for Christmas, Menotti was reportedly stumped until he saw a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, "Adoration of the Magi," hanging in the Metropolitian Museum of Art in New York.