Amahl and the Night Visitors for kids: the story and the music

Amahl and the Night Visitors is a short Christmas opera by Gian Carlo Menotti. It tells of a boy who walks with a crutch, and of three kings who stop at his door on their way to Bethlehem. It is sung in English, it has one act, and it lasts under an hour. A child sings the main part. Many families choose it as a first opera. Read Menotti for kids.

Quick facts

• Composer: Gian Carlo Menotti, born in Italy, working in the United States
• Words: by Menotti, in English
• First performed: December 24, 1951, on American television
• Length: one act, about 45 to 50 minutes
• A good first age: about five

How it began

The NBC television network asked Menotti to write an opera for broadcast. It was the first opera composed for television in the United States.

Menotti struggled for an idea. Then he saw a painting of the three kings in a New York museum. It reminded him of his childhood in Italy, where the Three Kings, and not Santa Claus, brought gifts to children.

The opera went out live on Christmas Eve in 1951. NBC showed it again for many years after, and it became a holiday tradition.

Menotti asked that the part of Amahl always be sung by a boy and never by a grown woman.

The story

Amahl is a shepherd boy of about 12. He walks with a crutch. He lives with his mother, who is a widow, and they are so poor that they may have to beg.

Amahl likes to tell tall tales. One night he tells his mother that a star with a long tail is shining over the roof. She does not believe him.

There is a knock at the door. Amahl opens it and runs back. “Mother, there is a king outside,” he says. She sends him to look again. Now there are two kings. Then there are three, and a servant who carries their gifts.

The kings are Kaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. They are following the star to find a child, and they ask to rest for the night. Amahl’s mother lets them in.

Kaspar is hard of hearing, and Amahl has to shout his questions. Kaspar shows Amahl his box. It has three drawers, with magic stones, beads, and licorice inside.

The neighbors, who are shepherds, bring food for the kings and dance for them.

Late at night, everyone sleeps. Amahl’s mother looks at the kings’ gold. She thinks of all it could do for her son, and she reaches for a little. The servant wakes and grabs her. Amahl hits the servant with his crutch and begs the kings not to hurt his mother.

King Melchior tells her to keep the gold. The child they seek, he says, will not need it. She gives it back. She has waited all her life for such a king, and she wishes she had a gift of her own to send.

Amahl offers his crutch. As he lifts it, he takes a step without it. He can walk.

The kings ask to take Amahl with them, so he can give his gift himself. His mother agrees. Amahl plays his shepherd’s pipe as they leave.

Music to hear first

The shepherd’s pipe. The opera opens with Amahl playing his pipe outside. An oboe in the orchestra plays the tune.

The march of the kings. A slow, steady march announces the kings as they come up the road.

“This is my box.” Kaspar’s quick, funny song about his box of treasures. Most children like this one best.

“Have you seen a child?” The kings and the mother sing in turn. The kings sing of the child they seek. The mother sings of her own.

The shepherds’ dance. It starts slow and shy and ends fast.

What parents ask

Is it religious? The story is set on the road to Bethlehem, and the kings seek the child Jesus. The opera itself is about a poor family, a kind act, and a gift.

Is it scary? The scene with the gold is tense for a minute or two. No one is hurt.

Can a child follow the words? The opera is in English, and the story is plain. Read the outline above first, and your child will follow every scene.

Ways to see it

Churches, schools, and small opera companies stage Amahl in December, often with a child from the town in the main part. The hall is often small, and the seats are close to the singers.

Recordings of the first broadcast and later productions exist. Listen to the opera at home first, in two sittings.

Things to do together

Open the box. Decorate a small box with three drawers or three sections. Decide what goes in each.

Count the kings. Act out the door scene. One person knocks, and the child reports one king, then two, then three.

Play the pipe. Play the opening and have your child pretend to play the pipe each time the oboe sounds.

Print and play

Draw a scene on a listening journal page. For another opera that suits December, read Hansel and Gretel, the opera, for kids. For how opera works, read opera for kids.

For more guides, see classical music listening guides for kids.