The first television opera
Witness History19 Joulu 2025

The first television opera

On 24 December 1951, in the United States, television history was made with the live broadcast of Amahl and the Night Visitors, the first opera ever composed specifically for TV.

Written by acclaimed Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti, the opera almost didn’t happen. Struggling with writer’s block and a looming deadline, Menotti feared he wouldn’t finish, until a visit to an art gallery sparked a childhood memory and inspired the story.

Broadcast live every Christmas Eve on NBC until 1966, Amahl and the Night Visitors became a much-loved holiday tradition for American audiences.

Produced and presented by Gill Kearsley using a variety of archive from the 1950s through to the 2000s.

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(Photo: Gian Carlo Menotti in 1957. Credit: Erich Auerbach/Getty Images)

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