Opera Wednesday

By Mitchell Hadley

Back in 1964, CBS presented a broadcast of Hector Berlioz's Christmas oratorio "L'Enfance du Christ" (The Childhood of Christ), featuring the Camarata Singers, members of the Metropolitan Opera, and the John Butler Dance Theatre. (You may remember John Butler as one of the featured dancers in the original production of Amahl and the Night Visitors.) It's difficult to imagine the Tiffany Network (or anyone else) doing that nowadays, particularly considering what CBS did to Frosty the Snowman, but there it was, on a Sunday morning in 1964, replayed again the following year.

This is not from that broadcast, but this clip is the "Chorus of the Shepherds" from a 1966 production, featuring the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society, conducted by Charles Munch.