This month, students cramming for final exams and last-minute shoppers who find stores sold out can take comfort in the knowledge that procrastination is ubiquitous.
According to legend, Mozart wrote the famous overture to Don Giovanni on the morning of its premiere, and, more recently, American composer Gian Carlo Menotti suffered terrible writers block when commissioned to compose a new work for live broadcast on NBC Opera Theatre in December 1951.
Menotti faced a tight deadline before the live broadcast on Christmas Eve, but struggled to find an inspiration for the work. Stressed and gloomy over the impending deadline, Menotti took a walk through New York’s Metropolitan Museum ofArt and glimpsed Hieronymus Bosch’s painting Adoration of the Kings and became inspired to write the story of Amahl and the Night Visitors.
In the liner notes to the original cast of this work, Menotti gives a charming account of the experience – describing how the painting helped him dissociate from the glitz and glamor of Christmas in New York City and recall the Italian Christmases of his childhood, wherein the Three Kings play the role of Santa Claus.
Although NBC Opera Theatre no longer exists, thanks to the generosity of Fathom Events, PN readers can also experience the excitement of a live opera broadcast. PN is giving away a pair of tickets to each of the live (11AM Sat., Dec 13) and encore (6:30PM Wed., Dec. 17) Met: Live in HD movie broadcasts of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg at Regal Cantera 17 in Warrenville.
To enter, email emilyriederer@gmail.com. For dates, times and a complete season schedule as well as where to find a theater near you, visit www.FathomEvents.com.
