Menotti: Amahl and the Night Visitors

sung in German

Tempu Ishijima (Amahl), Dshamilja Kaiser (Mother), Paul Schweinester (Kaspar), Nikolay Borchev (Melchior), Wilhelm Schwinghammer (Balthazar)

Wiener Symphoniker, Arnold Schoenberg Chor, Magnus Loddgard, Stefan Herheim

Premiered in 1951, Amahl and the Night Visitors was the first opera specifically composed for television, though Gian Carlo Menotti admitted that he had conceived it for the stage. The magical story tells of Amahl, a disabled boy who befriends the Three Kings when they stop at his house on their journey to see the newborn Jesus. Amahl decides to give his crutch to Jesus, at which point his leg is miraculously healed. Long a Christmas favourite, this new Viennese production, sung in German, boldly re-examines the story finding its key elements to be fantasy, empathy and the enduring power of love.