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Unstaged performances of "Amahl and the Night Visitors"Date: January 16, 2010
Greetings,
I am engaged in some research for a choral director who has the following question: "I would be interested in knowing if anyone has ever presented an Amahl and the Night Visitors unstaged, but with ballet dancers doing the 'action,' and vocal soloists and chorus providing the 'live' music."
If you have any information about such performances, including dates, cities, reviews (pro or con), etc. it would be appreciated. Also, if you have done a version like this, any advice or caveats you can offer would be valuable.
I did check the archives but did not find anything there.
Thanks very much!
Sarah Hager Johnston
GraceNotes
Replies (6): Threaded | Chronological
Stephen Stomps on January 17, 2010 9:03am
Sarah,
I have done so many Amahls over thirty years the details are a bit hazy. My memory is probably in the context of a preview of excepts for a young audience. Except for the arrival of the Kings which often features entry from the audience, there is little action needed. Thus, Amahl is almost a concert performance by itself.
When I prepared the Concert Choir from Ball State University for a touring cast comprised of several of the original TV performers, David Aiken added the merest staging for the Shephards ( mostly, stand around, look like shephards, sing out and, oh, a bring your own burlap bag!), look at the dancers, leave in darkness and sing "Shephards, Arise" off stage.
If Candide can work in an almost concert version, Amahl can certainly survive. It would, however, be cruel to keep the choir standing on risers that long. Basses will play!"
S
on January 17, 2010 10:11am
The James Sewell Ballet has done it with with both the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra, and it's beautiful. I think they also have done it with colleges and high schools. When I saw it with SPCO, the singers were in the pit with the orchestra. It was very effective Check their website.
on January 17, 2010 5:32pm
Since you're researching, Sarah, let me mention one possible pitfall. I'm pretty sure "Amahl" comes under Grand Rights.
What that means in practical terms is that you can certainly work from the piano-vocal score, if that's what you want to do, but the orchestrations is probably only available on rental and would trigger payment of performance royalties, whether staged or not. And the dialog may or may not be in the piano-vocal scores. I can't remember whether it's all sung, or whether there is spoken dialog as well.
This is pure guesswork, since the closest I've ever come is playing in the orchestra back in the '70s at Indiana, with a runout performance in Indianapolis, and we weren't involved in the financial arragements. It was done by the IU Opera Theater, and conducted by Fiora Contino. And yes, David Aiken sang his original role, on which he built a lot of his reputation and livelihood.
The auditorium in Indianapolis was much wider than the hall it had been staged for, and when the shepherds entered split up between audience left and audience right, they lost the beat and got separated from each other and the orchestra. I never did figure out what Fiora did, but in about 15 seconds of pure reflex she had us all back together again!!!
All the best,
John
on October 23, 2010 6:22am
I have two questions about a possible performance of Amahl.
I have purchased enough copies of the octavo of the "Shepherd's Chorus" from Amahl for all my singers. Can this be performed without royalites if i limit myself to what's included in the octavo?
If i decide to perform the entire work with piano accompaniment only are there royalties for that?
Thanks,
Laura
on October 23, 2010 9:31am
Laura, that depends upon what kind of performance you're planning, as well as what kind of ensemble you have. Questions very similar to this one come up rather often in the "Legal issues" forum, so take a look through those. However, if you are a school or church chorus, and planning on doing a straight choral performance (stand and sing) of what is printed in the published octavo, in the context of a school or church performance, in which nobody is compensated and there is either no admission charge or the costs of admission are solely to defray the cost, then there is no royalty obligation. If any of those aren't true, you need to do some more work.
As for the second question, ANY staged performance of this work will be subject to grand rights. Dramatico-musical works performed within the context of a worship service are exempt, but you'll still need to obtain the appropriate performance materials.
TT
on October 23, 2010 11:22am
Laura: I agree almost completely with Tom. You can perform the music in the octavos you bought without invoking Grand Rights. Whether you have to pay a performance royalty depends on whether your performance qualified for the educational or religious exemptions under Fair Use, and you didn't tell us that.
However, please note that the exemption does not cover just any "church performance"--i.e. performance in a church. There are two criteria that must be met: (1) the music must be religious in nature (which "Amahl" should qualify for; and (2) the music must be performed in the course of a religious service or a religious assembly. Just because a performance takes place in a church does not make it a "service" or an "assembly"; it's still a concert and does not get the exemption. (And I doubt that having a minister give an invocation will magically turn a concert into a "service"!)
And yes, any staged performance triggers Grand Rights. But it's also possible that a concert performance of an entire "musico-dramatic work" (as it's called in the law) would also trigger them. As to piano accompaniment, it would make no difference (as far as I know). It's still Grand Rights, and since the work was composed in the 1950s (1954 if memory serves), it is quite definitely still under copyright. Is the full piano-vocal score even available for purchase? Probably, since they are for musical theater and operatic works, but purchasing it does NOT satisfy the requirements of Grand Rights, for which there are NO exemptions and NO Fair Use.
All the best,
John
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