Amahl and the Night Visitors
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Free Music Notes for Amahl and the Night Visitors
Free Music Review: Amahl and The Night Visitors
Hit: 5 Stars
This recording (produced in 1986), directed with the help of the composer, Gian Carl Menotti, is the most perfect piece of music I have encountered in many years. Amahl's (James Rainbird)voice is of such sweet clarity and nuance that it brings me to tears. The orchestra (Covent Garden Symphony) is beautiful and multi-layered. Each time I listen to it, I discover some other little piece of phrasing by another instrument that adds to the complex tapestry of the over all musical score. I have purchased several copies of it for friends. I have listened to other versions of Amahl for over 50 years, and this is, by far, the best I have ever heard. For pure listening pleasure of a treasured Christmas classic, I cannot recommend it highly enough. I even listen to it throughout the year, regardless of the season. I simply do not understand other people's criticism of it. Perhaps I am musically naive, perhaps they are musical snobs. It is pure musical bliss in my book, and I can't get enough of it.Free Music Review: Christmas is not the same without it
Hit: 5 Stars
Every christmas, my family would go out and get a tree, bring it back and decorate it. This normal tradition was always a great joy for me because it was the first time we listened to Amahl and the Night Visitors. Of course, it wasn't the last time, as our record player would get quite worn out playing the LP a lot throughout the holiday season. Once the tree came down, the record went on the shelf to await that magical time next year. I can still sing the entire album by heart (even the parts where the record skipped). The story, about a poor widow and her crippled son who take three kings and their page in for the night on their star-guided way to visit a child, is a breath-taking display of hardships, money, and how love triumps over all. "How far? How far?" will I have to go to get this? Wonderfully, not far at all. My crystal star has guided me right to it. This is a wonderful opera, one I will most definitely share with my children (once I have them)Free Music Review: A Superior Recording of this work
Hit: 5 Stars
For those of us who searched for this recording in vain for a while, its reappearance on the scene is a delight. Lorna Haywood's performance is the reason I wanted this recording for so long. Her "mother" is passionate, moving, and superbly sung. Menotti himself, in the liner notes, voices his approval for her interpretation of this key role. The singing on the whole is wonderful, and the performance is even throughout the recording. One curiosity has to do with the printing of the jacket; the mother's famous aria "All that Gold" is misprinted as "All that Food!" Sort of a laughable mistake! But the recording makes up for this.Free Music Review: The best recording of Amahl
Hit: 5 Stars
I am also a singer and I find this recording much superior in every respect to the other old mono recording. Yes there are a few occasional questionable tuning but it has much less bad tuning when compared to the other recording, which in addition has inferior old mono sound. The performances in this recording are vivid, dramatic and musical, obviously much helped by the presence and direction of the composer, Menotti. If you want a recording of Amahl, this is the only and best recording of Amahl to get.Free Music Review: Your Best Amahl Choice
Hit: 5 Stars
Just a note to those trying to decide which Amahl and The Night Visitors CD to buy. Get this one! Menotti participated in making it and was happy with the result (sez so on the liner notes). Not that I am any kind of big time exprt or anything, but I had to learn the Amahl role for our Y2K community choir concert, so I listened to the video, the Schippers version + and also this one, and this was the best quality recording, plus the boy soprano was so much better + everyone else just fab. Enjoy!