The Alcoa Hour: Amahl and the Night Visitors (S1E06)

Throughout the decade of the 1950s, Gian Carlo Menotti's opera Amahl and the Night Visitors was a beloved Christmas television tradition, shown live every year, beginning with its premiere performance in 1951. Amahl was the first opera to be commissioned for television, and the first to fully exploit the potential of the new medium, With a Libretto (in English) of great lyrical beauty, penned by the composer himself, and a cast of superb singing actors, Amahl magnificently achieves the goal of NBC Opera Theatre's founders, which was to bring sincerity and realism to opera . The work, tailored by Menotti for children, as for many an eye-opening introduction into the world of opera as musical theatre. It remains a delightful, inspirational, and ultimately deeply moving experience.