From October through December, department stores, television, merchandise, and popular tunes remind us that “it’s the most wonderful time of the year!” Disagreeing with the jollity is a sure-fire way to declare yourself a modern-day Scrooge, but the secular commercialism can become cloying to those who are sensitive to Christmas’s Christian significance. Even families who understand the holiday’s religious meaning may find that many of the traditional customs trade the birth of Jesus for tinsel and holly.
A popular Yuletide tradition for many people is seeing a Christmas-themed production. Every ballet company in the world, from the humblest local school to the biggest professional troupe, performs some version of “The Nutcracker.” Theatrical groups perform different adaptations of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol.” While these are both time-honored, beloved holiday tales, you may yearn for a Christmas show which includes shepherds and the Star of Bethlehem instead of Christmas goose and sugarplums. The solution is an opera, “Amahl and the Night Visitors” by Gian-Carlo Menotti.
About the Opera
Since it is under an hour long, this opera’s events take place in one night. It has only six featured characters, plus a small chorus. The story focuses on Amahl, a young shepherd boy who lives with his mother in ancient Israel. Life isn’t easy for this little family, since he is a cripple who needs a crutch to walk, and she is a poor widow with no money and no resources left to support herself and her child. The unnamed mother adores her son, but his insistence on telling fairytales distresses her greatly. She has reluctantly realized that they must now go begging to survive, which Amahl fantasizes as a fun adventure.On the night in question, Amahl tells his mother that there is a huge star outside, which she doesn’t believe. Just as they are going to sleep, Amahl hears someone approaching their house. When he answers the door, he is shocked to see three majestic kings from distant lands. His mother refuses to believe him until she goes to the door herself. The three kings, Melchior, Balthazar, and Kaspar, ask for shelter and warmth for themselves and their servant, and she gladly welcomes them, although she has little to offer. Amahl is amazed by their exotic trappings, and the mother is awed by all the gold they are bringing to a holy child to whom the Eastern Star is guiding them.
Menotti’s Inspiration
Menotti alone wrote the basic premise for “Amahl and the Night Visitors” as well as the music and lyrics, which are called the libretto in opera. He later recounted how he crafted the story by drawing on his belief in the Three Magi during his Italian boyhood, intertwining childhood tales with artistic renderings of the Wise Men to create this playful yet touching Christmas opera:“This is an opera for children because it tries to recapture my own childhood. You see, when I was a child I lived in Italy, and in Italy we have no Santa Claus. I suppose that Santa Claus is much too busy with American children to be able to handle Italian children as well. Our gifts were brought to us by the Three Kings, instead.
“I actually never met the Three Kings—it didn’t matter how hard my little brother and I tried to keep awake at night to catch a glimpse of the Three Royal Visitors, we would always fall asleep just before they arrived. But I do remember hearing them. I remember the weird cadence of their song in the dark distance; I remember the brittle sound of the camel’s hooves crushing the frozen snow; and I remember the mysterious tinkling of their silver bridles.
“My favorite king was King Melchior, because he was the oldest and had a long white beard. My brother’s favorite was King Kaspar. He insisted that this king was a little crazy and quite deaf. I don’t know why he was so positive about his being deaf. I suspect it was because dear King Kaspar never brought him all the gifts he requested. He was also rather puzzled by the fact that King Kaspar carried the myrrh, which appeared to him as a rather eccentric gift, for he never quite understood what the word meant.
“To these Three Kings I mainly owe the happy Christmas seasons of my childhood and I should have remained very grateful to them. Instead, I came to America and soon forgot all about them, for here at Christmas time one sees so many Santa Clauses scattered all over town. Then there is the big Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza, the elaborate toy windows on Fifth Avenue, the one-hundred-voice choir in Grand Central Station, the innumerable Christmas carols on radio and television—and all these things made me forget the three dear old Kings of my old childhood.
“But in 1951 I found myself in serious difficulty. I had been commissioned by the National Broadcasting Company to write an opera for television, with Christmas as deadline, and I simply didn’t have one idea in my head. One November afternoon as I was walking rather gloomily through the rooms of the Metropolitan Museum, I chanced to stop in front of the Adoration of the Kings by Hieronymus Bosch, and as I was looking at it, suddenly I heard again, coming from the distant blue hills, the weird song of the Three Kings. I then realized they had come back to me and had brought me a gift.”
A Much-Needed Christmas Story
“Amahl and the Night Visitors” is a Christmas show which needs to be revived as annual holiday entertainment. The 2010 Summer Newsletter from Schirmer News cited Menotti’s simplistic masterpiece as the most performed opera in North America, with 500 performances annually as a Christmas production by amateur and community groups. Although twelve years old, that statistic proves that this Christmas opera has remained popular in the 21st century. It is often performed after Christmas as well as before, so you may be able to find a local live performance at a regional opera company, a community theater, or even a church. If you’re involved with one of these groups in your community, perhaps you could suggest a performance of this opera next Christmas when scheduling for the new year is discussed.This Christmas, I suggest you join me in reenacting the 1951 holiday tradition of watching this family friendly opera on Christmas Eve. Without ever mentioning Mary, Joseph, or Jesus by name, “Amahl and the Night Visitors” is a beautiful reminder of why we celebrate Christmas.
