A one-legged shepherd boy meets three kings—and opera has never felt this Christmas-morning magical.
One night in Judea, a disabled shepherd boy-turned-beggar and his mother are visited by three strangers. They are the Three Kings, and they are on their way to Bethlehem to visit the Christ Child, who has just been born.
Acting
Teresa Stratas' mother—desperate, proud, devastating.
Score
Menotti's melodies that worm into your heart permanently.
Director
Arvin Brown
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was the first opera written specifically for television, commissioned by NBC in 1951—revolutionary for making 'high art' a living-room Christmas ritual.
Robert Sapolsky, the boy Amahl, was plucked from a church choir with zero opera training—his rawness makes the miracle feel earned, not performed.
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