"Amahl and the Night Visitors" was the first opera specifically composed for television in the United States. The first production was presented live on television by the NBC Opera Theater in on Christmas Eve, 1951 (see an archival video of that first production below).
Composer Gian Carlo Menotti wrote the libretto and the music for the opera. Inspired by the painting "The Adoration of the Magi" by Hieronymus Bosch, Menotti chose to tell a Christmas story about the Three Kings - also called the Three Wise Men.
The Interlochen Arts Academy Workshop presented a production of "Amahl and the Night Visitors" in December 2024, and a recording of that performance is featured in this episode.
Laura Osgood Brown directed the production. The collaborative pianist was Susan Snyder.
The program is available below. Please note that this program features the recording of the 12/6 cast.
The archival recordings heard on The Interlochen Collection are available thanks in part to The Association for Recorded Sound Collections' Classical Music Preservation Grant, generous support from IPR listeners and the Hamer D. and Phyllis C. Shafer Foundation.
Michael Culler engineered the recordings heard in this episode.
