Uni Student's Christmas Carol Adaptation

For the extra credit report, I went to the performance on Thursday, November 29, 2018. It was held at the Grand Theatre at Salt Lake Community showcasing the Lyric Opera Ensemble. In this performance, the ensemble performed Amahl and The Night Visitors and A Christmas Carol. Both operas were very interesting to watch as I had never been to an opera before, I really enjoyed seeing the stories unfold in both. Also, I was surprised to find out that the opera, A Christmas Carol was an original from a student at the university and had its own adaptation of the story!

The piece that I decided to focus on from this performance was the Amahl and The Night Visitors.

Composed by Gian Carlo Menotti, as a one-act opera, was first performed on December 24, 1951 by the NBC Opera Theatre. Inspired by The Adoration of the Magi, this libretto was to be performed by a young boy, the character Amahl, along with supporting voices and an orchestra.

All together performing to portray a story that would be re-enacted for years due to its great success and the imprint that it left on the musical world.

Amahl and The Night Visitors was written after Peter Herman Adler requested specifically that Menotti be the composer behind this masterpiece that was going to be the first of its kind, being the first that was composed to be broadcasted on American television. After struggling to find inspiration for this piece, Menotti referred to The Adoration of the Magi to help guide him in his composition.

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An important aspect of this composition is that Menotti was adamant in having Amahl be played by a young boy, not even using a women substitute would be allowed. Other characters played a role in this opera by contributing soprano, tenor, bass-baritone, and bass voices. Furthermore, the accompanying orchestra played a role in ensuring that the vocalists and instrumentalists were in sync to portray the story that Menotti had envisioned.

Being based off of a painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Menotti was able to create a story from his interpretation of the painting and how he wanted the story to be told through his vocalists. As an opera, I didn’t know what to expect as I had never seen one live before, but was pleasantly surprised to be able to tell the storyline of the libretto as it was performed and how each voice played a specific role in the story.

When I saw this performance by the Lyric Opera Ensemble, I really enjoyed being able to tell who each voice was portraying and the story that they were all together as one performing. Some specific parts that stuck out the me was, when the 3 kings showed up to Amahl’s door on the way to visit the Child and the boy and his mother are stunned at this site as they do not have anything to offer them. As they are performing this specific part of the opera, I was able to notice the emotion in their voices along with the words that they were singing. The next part that stuck out to me was when Amahl went to gift the 3 kings his crutch in an offering to give the Child that they are going to visit. Immediately, as he hands them his crutch, his wounded leg is healed and he no longer needs assistance. This scene particularly gave me chills and as the vocalists were performing their tempo and sounds reflected the scene unfolding.

Overall, this was such a great experience for me as I have never been to an opera and I feel like this was a perfect libretto for me to see. As a religious person, I was able to personally relate to the story that was being told while also understanding the musical components that were being performed. I really enjoyed how each voice played a specific role and all together these performers were able to tell a beautiful story alongside the accompanying orchestra. After this experience, I am definitely going to be attending more concerts like it and to further expand my knowledge of different types of musical performances that are available to me.