The TC Band and Chorus and several selected soloists from Texarkana presented two performances of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” in the College Auditorium yesterday, one at 2:30 p.m. and another at 8.
“Amahl and the Night Visitors” portrays the search for the Christ Child by the Three Wise Men. It was written by a gifted young American composer, Gian Carlo Menotti, on commission from the NBC television network. It has been presented every Christmas on NBC for the last ten years.
The musical drama is in the form of a children’s story for adults who wish to recapture the wonderful feeling of Christmas. Children, too, find it entertaining since the central figure is Amahl, a young crippled lad who is healed on the night of Christ’s birth.
The modern drama is written with contemporary names and speech. The scene, however, as it might have been, is the home of Jesus, a humble shepherd’s cottage into which came the adoring Oriental kings of the shepherds donned in their simple robes and leather sandals.
Soloists in the production included Leon Smith and Henry Wood of the TC faculty, A. L. Crawford, Mrs. Lois Zanger. Amahl was portrayed by Will Kizer and Roy (Te) Turner from the St. James Day School, one in the matinee performance, the other in the evening.
Robert Zanger directed the drama.