1951- "Amahl And The Night Visitors"

.....Yesterday most NPR stations noted the 100th birthday of composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who made history when he wrote the first opera commissioned for television. Although born in Italy Menotti had lived in the U.S. since his teens and, hoping to bring opera to as wide an audience as possible, wrote it in English. The story, "AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS", is about a boy unable to walk without crutches and in the habit of telling tall tales. His family's home happens to be on the route followed by the three kings seeking the birth of Christ and when they ask for temporary rest there, no one will believe Amahl when he says there are kings at his door.

.....Menotti is no longer with us, but ten years ago, on the fiftieth anniversary of the opera's live broadcast debut, NPR managed to secure an interview with him. At ninety years old he was not only aware and animated, but had clear memories of the production. As of this writing the interview was still available through the archives at npr.org, and this link should bring readers to the page with the audio link:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1135273

.....And the next link should bring readers to the page with yesterday's article on Menotti, including both audio and video links:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/07/07/137649623/making-a-case-for-menotti

.....My normal format for this post doesn't really account for video sources, let alone live broadcasts. I think I'll just write this off as a special occasion. I've four months of catching up to do and the general music blog is now getting dusty so I'm going to make sure I can complete at least another week here and then hopefully alternate between them after that.