Hailed by the New York Times as “intimate, affecting and quietly rich with activism,” El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered is an all-new chamber music version of John Adams’s Christmas oratorio, arranged by Christian Reif, which celebrates Latin American poets and the voices of women.
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Program Note by Julia Bullock
Traditions develop out of passionate reactions to events. The nativity story and themes that surround it have preoccupied us for centuries — there are miraculous aspects we celebrate like the unique relationship between birthing parent and child, and acts of generosity through gift giving; held alongside the challenging realities of genocide, forced displacement, and how the promise of new, or liberated, life is often accompanied by a threat and enactment of violence. That’s part of why at the end of each calendar year we seek out opportunities to consider the past cycles we find inescapable.
While the Christian doctrine is steeped in patriarchal structures and often shared through the lens of Western-European perspectives, “El Niño” brings the voices of women and Latin American poets to the forefront. Contrasting moments of intimate immediacy and ferocious power are what struck me when I first heard the original work by John Adams and Peter Sellars, and they’re what inspired me to find a way to share this piece with as many people and communities as possible.
It’s meaningful to present El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered in this distilled version — whether in the concert hall or a place of spiritual worship — because anywhere we choose to congregate can be considered sacred when we hear stories, reflect on lessons from those narratives, and witness each other in the process.
Thank you for joining us for this offering, which I hope will become a tradition.
With warmth and respect,
Julia Bullock
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EL NIÑO: NATIVITY RECONSIDERED
Music by John Adams
Libretto compilation by Peter Sellars
Musical selections by Julia Bullock
Musical arrangement by Christian Reif
Featured Soloists and Past Performances
St. John the Divine with the Trinity Wall St Choir – Opera Omaha – Stanford University – Yale University – Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra – Bayerischen Rundrunks Orchestra and Choir – Gävle Symphony Orchestra in Sweden
Soprano Julia Bullock
Bass baritone Davóne Tines
Mezzos J’nai Bridges, Jasmin White
Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, Kyle Tingzon
*was originally presented as a part of Julia Bullock’s first Artist Residency at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2018 in The Cloisters, and has since been produced several times by AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company)
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Excerpts from John Adam’s El Niño with Kent Nagano and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (2001).
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Critical Acclaim
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
The Cloisters (New York, NY)
MASTERS OF THE MODERN HOLIDAY ORATORIO
Joshua Barone, The New York Times
[Nativity Reconsidered offers] a dozen of the oratorio’s more meditative and lyrical numbers that dramatically streamline the Nativity story… The singers [Julia Bullock, J’nai Bridges, Anthony Roth Costanzo and Davóne Tines] were well equipped to navigate Mr. Adams’s vocal music: its exquisite and enveloping lyricism, but also the way it treats syllables as musical notes to be repeated and rearranged, creating an entire breathless passage from a single word… Ms. Bullock, her voice by turns warm and teeming with urgency, felt at times larger than the chapel itself: towering in the “Magnificat” and chilling “Memorial de Tlatelolco.” And the way she programmed “El Niño” elevated an already-revisionist work to something much more powerful.
JOHN ADAMS’ EL NIÑO, DISTILLED, AT THE CLOISTERS
Clive Paget, Musical America
Julia Bullock’s residency at The Met Museum is turning out to be one of the year’s most stimulating arts projects. Not only is she providing opportunities to hear thrilling voices and committed interpretations, she’s engaging with the Met collection in illuminating and sometimes challenging ways…. In her program note, Bullock correctly describes her filleted, rearranged, and occasionally reordered adaptation as a “distilled rendering.” Adams’ glorious original lasts for two hours with a large orchestra and substantial roles for adult and children’s chorus. This version, cunningly re-scored for a chamber ensemble of 12 by Preben Antonsen, with contributions by Chad Cannon and Christian Reif, offers [a] more reflective view of the work. By boiling it down to an hour, Bullock zooms in on the human dimension––Mary, Joseph, and the baby––and themes of childbirth, faith, and resilience in the face of the unknown. Most poignant of all in these Trumpian, self-absorbed, wall-obsessed times, through the plight of the Holy Trinity, it questions out attitude toward modern-day immigrants fleeing persecution.