“Amahl and the Night Visitors” Press Release

Download the press release HERE.

On Site Opera to present Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, December 6-8, 2018 at the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen

Performances are free, and will feature a chorus of community members who have experienced homelessness, as part of a partnership with Breaking Ground, New York City’s largest provider of permanent supportive housing for the homeless

Separately, the company’s acclaimed production of Mozart’s The Secret Gardener (La finta giardiniera) will be presented at Caramoor’s Sunken Garden, July 13

For immediate release – New York, NY – On Site Opera (OSO) will present Gian Carlo Menotti’s holiday opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, at the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen December 6-8, 2018. In partnership with Breaking Ground, New York City’s largest provider of permanent supportive housing for the homeless, performances will feature a chorus made up of community members who have experienced homelessness. Tickets will be free, part of OSO’s “Opera Free For All” initiative.

Said OSO General and Artistic Director, Eric Einhorn, of the production: “In this collaboration with our amazing partners at Breaking Ground and the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, we hope to show how the arts and social services can work hand in hand, and help to shine a light on the issue of homeless in New York City, particularly during the holiday season.”

Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors is a retelling of the Nativity story and the journey of the Magi from the point of view of Amahl and his mother who are on the brink of poverty. Performed in English in one 45-minute act, the opera was originally written for television and premiered on Christmas Eve 1951.

Separate from the December production of Amahl and the Night Visitors, OSO is proud to re-mount its acclaimed production of Mozart’s The Secret Gardener (La finta giardiniera) at Caramoor’s Sunken Garden on July 13. The production was premiered at NYC’s West Side Community Garden in 2017, and then with The Atlanta Opera’s Discoveries series at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

This production follows OSO’s acclaimed recent performances of Ricky Ian Gordon’s and William Hoffman’s Morning Star at the Eldridge Street Synagogue, Mozart’s Secret Gardener in an NYC community garden, Milhaud’s Guilty Mother in a Hell’s Kitchen garage, and the world premiere of Musto’s Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs.

This production is made possible by an OPERA America Innovation Grant, supported by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Supported by funding from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Listing Info

Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors
Libretto by the composer
Partnership with Breaking Ground

DATES & LOCATION:
December 6 & 7, 2018 at 7:30pm
December 8, 2018 at 5:00pm & 8:00pm
Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen
296 9th Ave, New York, NY 10001

Tickets are free as part of On Site Opera’s “Opera Free For All” Initiative

PRODUCTION TEAM & ORCHESTRA:
Conductor: Geoffrey McDonald
Director: Eric Einhorn
Choreographer: Edward Morgan
Costume Designer: Jessica Jahn
Lighting Designer: Shawn Kaufman
Chorus: Formerly homeless members of the community, in partnership with Breaking Ground
Dancers: Members of TheEdwardMorganBallet

CAST:
The Mother: Aundi Moore, soprano
King Caspar: Joseph Gaines, tenor
King Melchior: Daniel Belcher, baritone
King Balthazar: Musa Ngqungwana, bass
Amahl: TBA
The Page: TBA

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