Witness

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.Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural