Remember watching this on TV when it first came out in 1951? Well, perhaps you don't have that many years in you, but it was pretty exciting for the folks that saw it on their recently acquired TV's. Soon everyone who owned a piano (and that was a lot of folks back then) owned the sheet music for Amahl and the Night Visitors, playing and singing the music, and humming the tunes which became almost as well known as traditional Christmas Carols. In 1955, Amahl and the Night Visitors was performed at Newton High School with Donald March conducting the orchestra, Susan Stone playing the part of the mother, and Mark Golub as one of the three kings. More recently, Marash Girl used to take her children to a performance of Amahl and the Night Visitors every year that it was performed at the Newton Presbyterian Church in Newton Corner.
Amahl and the Night Visitors was the first opera commissioned especially for television. If you're wishing you could hear the original opera again, you can find a recording of the original at UTube (in 5 parts). If you were hoping to obtain a copy of the sheet music, you're in luck! One copy of the complete score, piano part, lyrics in English, and all voice parts in the original 65 page booklet is available at OldCornerBooks.com.
I didn't know that it was an opera. I will listen to a little of it on Youtube later on when I'm back up in the office.
ReplyDeleteShnorhagalem...Grazie tanto to Marash Girl and Nisha for the quick and easy chicken parm recipe.(blog, Thurs. 12/22/11) It was a success at Christmas dinner.
I used "Pomi" brand tomato sauce from Italy, which I found at Shaws/Star Mkt in Cambridge and imported Romano and Parmesan cheese from Sevan. I recommend.
Marash Girl, please excuse me for not having invited you as you requested. I don't have your phone no. and also I assumed that you would be busy on Christmas night. I promise to invite you the next time, hopefully before my living room/dining room becomes cluttered again. :-)
Shnorhavor nor dari...
Marko Pasha
'don't you dare, don't you dare, don't you dare hit my mother, don't you dare', is the only thing i remember from amahl and the night visitors. i was six years old when i first watched it on our spherical picture screen housed in a black walnut tank like structure. to see a little boy come to the aid of his mother choked me up, and still does.
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