Customer Review(s)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Sweet Memories
Comment: My youthful memories of Christmas are rekindled by this masterpiece written directly for television. And amazingly, in a very short span of time. As a child of the 50s & 60s, "Amahl and the Night Visitors" will always stay in my heart. This was a huge part of my childhood Christmas tradition year after year.
I couldn't quite give this recording any higher rating than four stars though, due to the reproductive quality of the old mono sound. But I would still recommend it for the most part. Probably not the program I grew up on, since this is the original from the very early 50s; I was born in 1955. But the power of this story and the superb music written as an opera, probably the best ever composed for television, will delight anyone familiar with this work. And I'm sure many others will be won over as new listeners.
There are said to be many local stage productions of this classic annually, but I've only had the pleasure of seeing it once live on stage, and that was the early 70s, put on by my high school drama and music departments. There was even a newer production shot in Israel in the late 70s, but I didn't enjoy that much higher budgeted effort anywhere near as much as the earlier version I remember, or this recording from the original cast done back in 1952. The newer version just didn't have the same emotion or magic. So much for location scenery.
At this time, I await with great anticipation, the black-and-white DVD offered here on Amazon that I recently ordered. They also offer the newer 70s version, but I wasn't interested. Be forewarned though, the very dramatic ending will bring many to tears, especially from "All That Gold" to "Oh, Woman, You Can Keep The Gold." A television classic.
Customer Rating: Summary: A lovely work
Comment: Being from a more recent generation, I first read about
"Amahl and the Night Visitors" in an old book music
book by David Ewen, back in 1991, and it was not
until 2008, just last weekend that I got my hands on
a recording of this most magnificent opera. I came across
this particular recording by chance, as I was looking
at a most recent recording, by another label. I saw this
recording of the original telecast as staged by the composer,
and I realize that this recording was closer to the idea
of the composer than any other available. Yes, the sound is
not too great, but that does not matters when the fact
that this is as the composer heard it and staged it, comes to
mind. Thou here the orchestra and chorus are unknown, they
are conducted by Thomas Shippers, a great young conductor at
the time. I really do recommend this particular recording to
any other.
