new artistic director, Lear deBessonet,<\/a> is eager to present family-friendly programming.<\/p>\n\u201cInvesting in young people and families is literally investing in the future,\u201d deBessonet said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s no substitute for young people encountering the arts while they\u2019re at those developmental ages.\u201d<\/p>\n
How Menotti was inspired to compose \u2018Amahl\u2019<\/p>\n
Menotti, who wrote both the music and libretto for \u201cAmahl,\u201d had composed a number of successful operas, including \u201cThe Consul\u201d and \u201cThe Medium,\u201d when NBC commissioned him for the Christmas broadcast. But, as he recalled at the time, he was struggling to find a story as the deadline approached.<\/p>\n
Then a chance encounter with Hieronymus Bosch\u2019s \u201cThe Adoration of the Magi\u201d at the Metropolitan Museum of Art unlocked memories of his childhood in Italy.<\/p>\n
The title character in \u201cAmahl\u201d is a disabled child who lives in poverty with his mother. When the three Wise Men stop by on their way to present gifts to the baby Jesus, Amahl offers them his crutch in case the infant might need it. Instantly, he is able to walk without it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a story of selflessness and giving from the heart,\u201d DiDonato said. \u201cHow important is that in today\u2019s world? The important-est.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once Menotti had his plot, he rushed to complete the music and entrusted the orchestration to his partner, composer Samuel Barber. The Lincoln Center production uses a version scored for two pianos, an alternative authorized by Menotti.<\/p>\n
The two-piano accompaniment had been used successfully in an earlier opera performed at the Mitzi Newhouse, \u201cIntimate Apparel,\u201d a co-commission with the Met.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wonderful discovery of that show was that the sound created by two pianos and voices in that space was incredibly powerful, and you didn\u2019t really need something else,\u201d deBessonet said.<\/p>\n
More family programming planned for Lincoln Center<\/p>\n
Though this is the theater\u2019s first family offering, deBessonet is determined it won\u2019t be the last. Repeating \u201cAmahl\u201d in future years is one possibility, the way two other Lincoln Center institutions have annual holiday offerings: \u201cThe Nutcracker\u201d at the New York City Ballet and an abridged version of Mozart\u2019s \u201cThe Magic Flute\u201d at the Met.<\/p>\n
But deBessonet also sees part of her mission as commissioning new works for the holiday season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m inspired by the story of how George Balanchine\u2019s \u2018Nutcracker\u2019 came about,\u201d she said. \u201cAsking an artist at the very height of his craft to put that in the service of a work that would be highly engaging for children.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the opportunities we have is to add to the canon of work available for families.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.wsls.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2013 It seems all but unthinkable today: A major TV network hires a famous composer to write an original opera and broadcasts it live in prime time on Christmas Eve. But it was a different world in the early days of television back in 1951 when Gian Carlo Menotti\u2019s \u201cAmahl and the Night […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2196463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21741,424082,424079,424078,424081,424080,424083],"class_list":["post-2196462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-george-balanchine","tag-gian-carlo-menotti","tag-joyce-didonato","tag-kenny-leon","tag-peter-gelb","tag-samuel-barber"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/How-Joyce-DiDonatos-childhood-inspired-her-role-in-Amahl-and.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2196462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2196464,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196462\/revisions\/2196464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2196463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2196462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2196462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2196462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}