Central City Opera Presents AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS This December

Central City Opera presents the family-friendly opera Amahl and the Night Visitors in a limited-run series across the Front Range this December. Commissioned by NBC as the first opera written for television, Amahl and the Night Visitors debuted on December 24, 1951, and became an annual tradition until 1966. Composer Gian Carlo Menotti drew inspiration for the opera from Hieronymus Bosch's The Adoration of the Magi, which hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and from his childhood in Italy where Christmas gifts were brought by the Three Kings instead of Santa Claus.

Amahl and the Night Visitors tells the story of Amahl, a shepherd boy who has a propensity to tell tall tales, and his mother. Amahl's most recent story is about a star with a tail that moves across the sky like a chariot on fire. When three splendid strangers knock on the door and ask to rest in their tiny home, Amahl is thrilled and fascinated. When the visitors describe the miraculous child they are seeking, both Amahl and his mother are moved to give reverence to the child as well.