On December 15, YSC presents the AMOC* production of contemporary composer John Adams’s El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered with libretto by Peter Sellars and concept by Julia Bullock, “one of opera’s fastest-rising stars” (Vanity Fair). El Niño is a chamber music arrangement created and conducted by Christian Reif and was first performed at The Met Cloisters in 2018. The New York Times calls it “intimate, affecting and quietly rich with activism.”

This rarely performed work celebrates Latin American poets and voices of women. In her reflections on the work, Bullock writes “El Niño, alternatively, not only explores the central themes of the nativity – the immaculate conception, the unique relationship between birthparent and child, and gift giving – but the work ruminates on the notion that with the promise of new life, there is the equal threat of inexplicable violence and sacrifice.”