BARN OPERA: Finding Truths of the Time in Amahl
https://vtdigger.org/2019/12/23/moats-finding-truths-of-the-times-in-amahl/
Editor’s note: David Moats, an author and journalist who lives in Salisbury, is a regular columnist for VTDigger. He is editorial page editor emeritus of the Rutland Herald, where he won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for a series of editorials on Vermont’s civil union law.
Ever since it was first broadcast nationally by CBS in 1951, the one-act opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors” has become a profoundly satisfying answer to the omnipresent Christmas Muzak piped over sound systems in malls and supermarkets across the land.
Amahl, his mother and the three kings made a grand and moving appearance last week over two nights of performances at the Salisbury Congregational Church. Parallel wonders occurred at the Salisbury church. The appearance of an accomplished and thrilling professional opera performance, mounted by Barn Opera of Brandon, in the modest surroundings of the historic meetinghouse paralleled the appearance by three kings at the humble home of a poor widow and her crippled son.
It was not just another splendid artistic event. It was an event with a powerful message, grounded in the Christmas story, and speaking to profound moral questions with exceptional relevance today.
The story is a simple one. Three kings, arrayed in dazzling garments, arrive at the home of a widow who is so poor she has been forced to sell off her sheep and goat. She is contemplating the idea that she and her young son, hobbling about on a crutch, must go out on the roads to beg. They have no food or wood for their fire.
She offers to let the kings rest at her house, and they proceed to make themselves at home. One is carrying a box of gold and precious jewelry. They explain they are taking their gold, incense and myrrh to give to a child who who will be king.
The moral struggle that ensues all occurs within the anguished heart of the mother, performed with enormous power and passion by Helen Lyons. In one wrenchingly beautiful song, her lyrics intertwine themselves with those of the three kings. The kings sing of the child they are going to visit, who is a wondrous being: “Have you seen a Child the color of wheat, the color of dawn? His eyes are mild, His hands are those of a King ….”
The mother answers, “Yes, I know a child the color of wheat, the color of dawn. His eyes are mild, his hands are those of a King … But no one will bring him incense or gold, though sick and poor and hungry and cold. He’s my child, my son, my darling, my own.”
The injustice of the world, conveyed through the gorgeous music of Gian Carlo Menotti and the singers in Salisbury, is presented with heart-breaking clarity: a poor boy and his mother playing host to kings who are traveling in splendid array and laden with riches. This disparity is not lost on the mother, who believes her child is no less deserving than the child the kings are seeking with their gifts.
Her moral test occurs when everyone goes to sleep, and she sees the box of jewels tucked beneath the head of the sleeping Page. Her need and the needs of her beloved son are on her mind, and she launches into an aria that might have shaken the rafters, and certainly should have shaken the consciences of anyone who heard it. “All that gold! All that gold! I wonder if rich people know what to do with their gold! Do they know how a child could be fed? Do rich people know? Do they know that a house can be kept warm all day with burning logs? Do they know …? All that gold! All that gold! Oh, — what I could do for my child with that gold! Why should it all go to a child they don’t even know?”
She succumbs to the temptation, sneaks a necklace from the box, awakens the page, and the kings cry, “Shame!” Amahl leaps to her defense, and one of the kings is so moved that he tells the Mother to keep the necklace. The child they are seeking doesn’t need it. The moral twists and turns continue. The mother hears that the new king does not base his kingdom on the toil of others, and she tells the king that he should take the jewelry to the new king. She has been waiting for such a king all her life. Generosity competes with generosity. The mother’s generosity yields an unexpected miracle. Amahl, suddenly, can walk. He no longer needs his crutch. The kings suggest that he come with them to visit the child, and the mother agrees.
A morality tale laying bare the injustice of great wealth next to great poverty resonates strongly during this dark season. It is evident from the conduct of the American president that our nation’s leadership is in league with oligarchs around the world. This dispiriting reality is in the minds of many. Wealth is triumphant these days, and generosity is for losers.
And yet the story is not over. Just as Menotti’s music can ring out on a dark winter night within the candlelit sanctuary of one of Vermont’s historic churches, the message of generosity and love can be renewed among all of us. The grace and simplicity of the old meetinghouse, like similar meetinghouses all around the state, speak not of wealth, but of fundamental moral truths. The fundamental truth of Menotti’s opera and its faithful presentation by Barn Opera challenge the view that opulence and wealth are signs of worth.
Barn Opera has suggested that the success of the performance in Salisbury this year means “Amahl” will become an annual event in Salisbury. The message of the opera is likely to be as important next year as it is this.