It’s the holiday season, and, like so many others, I’m enjoying decorating the Christmas tree, baking Christmas cookies and planning for the arrival of beloved family — just like the previous generations of my Irish kin. Ours was a lineage that lived the preparations of the season on a daily basis — starting with the first Sunday of Advent four weeks before Christmas.
Thanks to Sister Urban, the consummate music teacher at our little parochial school, we spent a good share of every December day in her spacious music room — learning the musical score that would make up much of the program for midnight Mass.
I loved every moment of it — “Adeste Fideles” (in Latin), “Silent Night” (in German), “What Child Is This?,” “The First Noel,” “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and, my favorite, “Go Tell It on the Mountain.” I still cherish memories of standing high in the choir loft in the back of that beautiful church, Sister Urban at the Kimball pipe organ, feeling the beauty and reverence of those magical moments.
Santa Claus notwithstanding, this music, for me, was the most treasured part of the holiday season.
And speaking of holiday music, another cherished tradition is one I owe to my father, a lover of music of all kinds — especially opera. When I was about 5, he introduced me to the Christmas opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” This enchanting story, inspired by the painting “The Adoration of the Magi” by Hieronymus Bosch, was composed by Italian American composer Gian Carlo Menotti.
Menotti, who in 1950 won the Pulitzer Prize for his first full-length opera, “The Consul,” was commissioned by NBC in 1951 to compose an opera (with lyrics in English) specifically to be the first ever written for a television audience. It was performed by the newly formed NBC Opera Theatre and broadcast from Rockefeller Center on Christmas Eve that same year. The opera quickly became a holiday tradition for millions of Americans.
The opening scene is a small village in Judea, with Amahl’s impoverished mother calling the little shepherd boy inside for the night. He lingers to watch a mysterious star “as large as a window” in the night sky. I was completely captivated.
In the opera, Amahl, who struggles to walk with a crutch, and his mother find themselves unexpectedly hosting a group of weary travelers, Melchior, Balthazar and Caspar. The three kings are following a “Christmas star” in hopes they might give homage to a child who is rumored to have been born in a stable in Bethlehem and “has the moon and the stars at his feet.”
Menotti’s music and lyrics are truly exquisite, carrying the storyline forward in a compelling and moving narrative. My favorite song is sung by a chorus of shepherds and townspeople who arrive to see the unusual visitors, calling to each other with the refrain, “How are your children and how are your sheep?” Merriment ensues until the kings must bid “goodnight and farewell” — a long journey ahead.
Ultimately Amahl’s disability is magically cured — a “sign from the holy child.” The final scene finds him joyfully departing with the royal entourage to see the newborn king and offer his crutch as a gift.
Since its introduction in 1951, Menotti’s Christmas opera has been performed across the U.S. and beyond by hundreds of professional and amateur companies. Even today, millions of music lovers young and not-so-young enjoy attending a performance, listening to a recording or watching one of several versions of the opera on YouTube during the holiday season.
I’m still inspired by listening to its original recording — an LP released by RCA Victor. And on Dec. 21, we’ll be making a little holiday trip due east to Evanston, where we’ll enjoy a live performance of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Nichols Concert Hall.
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I’m not sure we’ll be following a Christmas star as we cruise along Interstate 80, but it will be a memorable way to celebrate the holidays.
Susan Koch is a retired chancellor of the University of Illinois Springfield. She lives in Iowa City, where she and her husband farm and raise purebred Angus cattle.
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