El Niño (oratorio)

El Niño is an opera-oratorio by the American minimalist composer John Coolidge Adams. It was premiered on December 15, 2000 at Paris' Théâtre du Châtelet by the Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, the London Voices, the Theater of Voices, La Maîtrise de Paris and soloists Dawn Upshaw, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Willard White, with Kent Nagano conducting. It has been performed on a number of occasions since, and has been broadcast on BBC television.

Described by Adams as a "nativity oratorio", the piece is designed to be performed equally well in both concert and stage settings, and uses texts from the King James Bible, Wakefield Mystery Plays and poems by Mexican poet Rosario Castellanos as well as Adams and librettist Peter Sellars.

It retells the Christmas story, with the first half of focusing on Mary's thoughts before the birth and the second half on the aftermath of the birth in the stable in Bethlehem, Herod's slaughter of the Holy Innocents and the early life of Jesus. The text follows the traditional biblical story of the birth of Jesus but also incorporates poetry from a wide range of sources. Included are poems by Rosario Castellanos, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Gabriela Mistral, and Rubén Dario. The work also includes selected passages from the Wakefield Mystery Play, Martin Luther’s Christmas Sermon, the Gospel of Luke, and several "gnostic" gospels from the Apocrypha. John Adams also quotes Gabriela Mistral’s "The Christmas Star" and a choral setting of "O quam preciosa" by Hildegard von Bingen.

Performers

The work is scored for soprano, mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists, a trio of counter-tenors and forty-five piece orchestra (which includes two guitars and a sampling keyboard), SATB chorus, and children’s chorus. The work can be performed either as a fully staged production or as a concert oratorio. The fully staged production piece includes dance and film elements created by Peter Sellars.

Musical sections

El Niño is composed of two sections and is approximately two hours long and is subdivided further into thirteen sections as follows:

Part 1

1. I Sing Of A Maiden
2. Hail, Mary, Gracious!
3. La Anunciación
4. For With God No Thing Shall Be Impossible
5. The Babe Leaped In Her Womb
6. Magnificat
7. Now She Was Sixteen Years Old
8. Joseph's Dream
9. Shake The Heavens
10. Se Habla De Gabriel
11. The Christmas Star

Part 2

1. Pues Mi Dios Ha Nacido A Penar
2. When Herod Heard
3. Woe Unto Them That Call Evil Good
4. And The Star Went Before Them
5. The Three Kings
6. And When They Were Departed
7. Dawn Air
8. And He Slew All The Children
9. Memorial De Tiatelolco
10. In The Day Of The great Slaughter
11. Pues Está Tritando
12. Jesus And The Dragons
13. A Palm Tree

Recordings

There is a DVD video of Sellars' Paris production of El Niño.

External links

• http://www.earbox.com/
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/classical/reviews/adams_dawnupshaw.shtml