Amahl and the Night Visitors

Gian Carlo Menotti, commissioned by NBC to write an opera for television, found inspiration while wandering through the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Netherland artist Hieronymus Bosch’s 1475 oil painting, The Adoration of the Magi, brought back Menotti’s own Italian childhood memories where gifts are brought to eager children not by Santa Claus, but by the three kings. Menotti then wrote the opera to unfold through the eyes of a child. The success of the 1951 broadcast, seen by an audience of an estimated 5 million viewers, led to annual NBC broadcasts from 1951 to 1966. The version filmed in 1978 is the one most often viewed today. In this short 1 act story, the poor crippled child, Amahl and his mother open their home to three traveling wisemen on their journey to present the Christ Child with their gifts. Amahl receives a very special gift of his own.

Place: Near Bethlehem 

Time: The first century, just after the birth of Christ