Amahl and the Night Visitors

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Miners Alley Playhouse ushers in the holiday season with a gentle reminder of Bethlehem, a star, a crippled boy, a wearied single mother, three kings, an obedient page, and shepherds, lots of shepherds.

Boni McIntyre as The Mother and Micah Cohoon as Amahl in the Miner’s Alley production of Amahl and the Night Visitors.

A creation of Gian-Carlo Menotti, as commissioned by NBC-TV in 1951, the opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors comes to life on MAP’s small stage directed by Robert Kramer.

A simple story, a gentle story, a one-act story takes a powerful turn and twist with a cast endowed with enormous talent, determination and dedication.

Micah Cohoon and Chace Johnson share the role of the young boy Amahl. Last Saturday night Johnson opened the door for the audience to experience Amahl for real.

On crutches, with a foot that doesn’t work the way it is suppose to, Amahl spends a vast amount of time day dreaming, bringing creative thought forms vividly to his mind, driving his worried mother to distraction.

With a powerful golden voice, Boni McIntyre plays and sings the Mother as though her life depends upon it. At the same time, McIntyre doesn’t just sing about the Mother, she provides a living photograph. Frustrated over her son’s abstract concoctions, fretful over keeping her small home swept clean, stressed over no wood for the fire, no food in the cupboard, not even for a mouse, and she has a son who refuses to go to bed when he’s told, who wants to stay outside to watch an unusual star. Although he begs her to look, she’s had enough of his silly games, sneaking a peek only when Amahl reluctantly snuggles down in his bed on the floor.

In spite of the stressful time for this mother and child, humor wrangles its way between the cracks.

A loud knock at the door, Mother tells Amahl to go see who it is. There stands a King in all of his finery, Balthasar (Gregory Hooper). Anxiety drawn on his face, Amahl knows his mother isn’t going to believe this tale. She doesn’t. Once more she asks him to see who it really is. Confessing he didn’t tell her the truth, he now reports there is not one King, but two. Melchlor (Jeff Butler) now stands at the door with Balthasar. In sleepy exasperation, she tells him to find out once and for all who is really there. Again he confesses he has not told the truth. Not only is there a third King, Kasper (shared by Thomas Poole and Tyler Collins), but also a Page (Rick Bernstein) responding to every whim of the three. When the Mother sees Amahl has told the truth, she falls to the floor in astonished adoration.

The costumes designed by Ann Piano not only compliment the earth tones of the scenery but also distinguishes the position of the different characters. The Kings decked out in regal finery, the Page with an Arabian Nights peculiarity noting his life station, the poor hassled worried Mother, the Shepherds, and dreamy Amahl. The costumes point toward a touch of tradition spiked with the uniqueness of the set on this particular production.

On stage, under a spotlight of his own, Travis Yamamoto plays the piano, with stylish flair. Although the piano is the only musical instrument visible, Menotti carefully calculated the music to tell the story, while the voices stand out as instruments in their own right. Technically, an entire orchestra plays its music and its story through a chorus of voices.

Amahl became an NBC Christmas tradition for several years and was the first Christmas special to become an annual television tradition. It remains a favorite to introduce opera to children because of its humor, wonder, magic, and delightful characters bringing the melodic story to life.

Bernstein designed the innovative set with angled platforms, an illusion of walls, the desert reaching out beyond the house and up into the midnight blue vast sky dotted with stars. With scorched wood, the interior of the small tidy house features only furniture of necessity. It is a poor but proud home constantly swept clean by a poor but proud mother who ties herself in knots over the thought of her son having to beg.

Hard of hearing Kasper sings about the box he takes everywhere, flaunting the treasures of gold it contains. Poole sang the role Saturday night, as humorously and delightful as anyone possibly could. Balthasar and Melchlor languished in royal treatment by the unsettled Mother and awestruck shepherds with their baskets of food.

When the shepherds leave, and the Kings have fallen asleep, jewels and gold obsess the Mother. With all of the treasures, certainly no one would miss a little. No one would except for the sharp-eyed Page who catches her. Bernstein mesmerizes with his silent authoritative statue-like stance. His eyes take center stage when at one point facing straight ahead, arms folded, his eyes flash to his left watching Amahl. No blinking, no movement whatsoever, the cold stare could have been used to scorch the wood for the set instead of a torch.

The Magi on their way to visit the Christ-child find compassion for the poor woman allowing her to keep the stolen gold. She can’t, and has nothing to give them to take on their journey. Neither has Amahl anything to give, except his crutch. In so doing, his foot becomes healed.

A message so strong and so simple, it could easily be over looked, ignored, or trampled into the land of the forgotten. Perhaps the message that kept Amahl a long-time favorite tradition yearns to be revived for its simplistic power.

To entertain the three Kings, three shepherds provide a gift of dance. Choreographed by Stephanie Prugh, Margaret Skokan, Julie Sigala, and Jordan Morgan dance with beauty, simplicity, and charm, Young Morgan’s eyes danced with the music, and as a shepherd undoubtedly she also danced for her sheep. The dance, a meticulous highlight in this production.

The music melodic, the voices tuned to perfection, the characters chiseled to intrigue, the story capturing wit, wonder, and magic, the set folding itself into story with its own music, this is one production that should not be missed by anyone. Yes, it’s early in the season, but what a perfect way to bow into the Holidays with a gentle story, an imaginative boy, a harried mother, royal trappings, dignified shepherds, and magnificent music.

Amahl and the Night Visitors is a gift all to itself. Miner’s Alley Playhouse wraps the production with the finest of jewels, the cast.