Invite This Visitor In

In 1951 television was very new.  Programming concepts were new.  Viewing was new.  Ed Sullivan was hot.  It would be 13 years before the Beetles appeared on his show.  Out of this TV primordial soup came an astonishing show: Amahl and the Night Visitors.  Producers at NBC believed there was a market for opera on television, and that a live performance would succeed.  Most operas were too long for the already established schedules of hour blocks interspersed with commercials.  Anticipating a large audience for Christmas programs, they commissioned a new opera.  It was to be on a Christmas theme, fit on the stage in NBC production studios and suitable for family viewing.  They turned to Gian Carlo Menotti.  Inspired by Hieronymous Bosch's painting, The Adoration of the Magi, Menotti nailed the assignment.  Amahl and the Night Visitors was the first production on the Hallmark Hall of Fame and was shown for many years during the Christmas holiday.  Here is the Bosch painting

And here, for a trip down memory lane, is the original broadcast with an introduction by Menotti from the Metropolitan Museum of Art where the Bosch painting hangs.

Merry Christmas.

All is Calm

If you live in Minneapolis you might already know about this theatrical concert.  I have just learned of it.  Playwright Peter Rothstein and musical arranger Erick Lichte collaborated on this production which opened in Minneapolis shortly before Christmas in 2007. All is Calm tells the story of the truce initiated and celebrated by men from the trenches - opposing armies mired in mud and snow with a life expectancy measured in weeks.  In November of 1914, the first year of the war, men dug in on both sides of "no man's land" began to offer impromptu concerts.  They sang patriotic songs, army ditty's, and as Christmas approached, they sang Christmas carols.  On Christmas eve a German first, and then men from both sides stood up, stepped out and offered their hands.  They sang, exchanged greetings and small gifts, and played soccer.  Ordered back to their trenches they retreated to four more years of slaughter.  All is Calm is an intimate and honest account of this truce.  It is based on, and narrated by letters home, war journals, radio broadcasts and similar first hand accounts.  Here is a link to the website where you can learn more and watch the trailer.  I hope it comes to a theater near me.

Fraud and Abuse

We are forever promised that holders of high office will cut budgets by going after waste, fraud and abuse.  Recently we heard about members of the Soviet diplomatic corps cheating the US Medicaid program.  The scam was repeated by so many over so many years that it was apparently considered one of the perks of office.  Lie about household income; qualify for Medicaid, receive pre-natal care and hospital delivery, and then blend back into the New York City glitter of shops and high living.  Here's the story from the New York Times.  Don't think the Russians are the only foreign nationals who know how to defraud Medicaid with this abuse.  Ask those you know in the immigrant community.  They know who else has babies this way.  How does Medicaid miss these cheats?  This is not something new.  Each successful theft from the United States tax payer emboldens the next perpetrator.  If I had heard about this long before the Russian scandal broke, why doesn't Medicaid know?  Are we afraid of profiling?  Are we uneasy about careful scrutiny of applicants with foreign passports?  Too bad.  There are plenty of needy people in our Medicaid programs who could use the money.