CAST:

soprano

Synopsis:

Theme: the Christ is to be found in everyone. The need to be open to change.

changeSynopsis: The time is shortly after the birth of Christ. A lonely old widow grieves over her lost husband and infant daughter, making her cottage the focus of all her attention. Children make fun of her, and neighbors, unable to lure her into friendship, mock her.

The lonely Befana sings a lullaby to a straw doll and goes to bed. On this cold winter night, three Magi arrive at her cottage to ask directions to Bethlehem, over which a bright star shines. Befana is startled by their beauty but cannot understand their language, so she turns them away. The Magi depart and their song is accompanied by the voices of Angels. Though stirred, Befana returns to bed. However, she cannot sleep and takes up the straw doll again. Her singing is overheard by a shepherd.

Despite herself, Befana lets the shepherd in. He tells her about the star and quotes the Prophets about the coming of a Messiah, but Befana makes her usual excuses. At a loss, the shepherd asks her about the straw doll, and she vehemently defends her privacy. Regretting that he has offended her, the shepherd sings Befana a farewell blessing and leaves. Alone in her cottage, Befana returns the blessing.

Old Befana then wonders if she should have gone with the shepherd. She leaves the cottage, is momentarily distracted by her littered sidewalk, which she sweeps, and then, transfixed by the ever louder song of angels, she hobbles in the direction of the star.

Old Befana's hobble becomes a walk, then the walk becomes a run. Soon she is flying. Angels surround her and repeat the prophesies. Out of the profound darkness and silence that follows, she hears the song of a young mother far below, singing to her infant. "This must be the Christ child!" she thinks. She descends to earth and sings a reverent hymn of greeting to the child. As her song ends, she hears another mother singing to her child. Then another. . .

According to legend, Old Befana never found the Christ Child. But in her search for Him, she comes to the bedsides of infants and children each year at Epiphany. She sees the Christ child in everyone.