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Note: The opera is in a single, continuous act without scene breaks or musical separations. In parentheses are cues to aid in lining up the story with the libretto.

The scene opens on a shepherd’s hut, where a young boy, Amahl, is sitting just outside playing a pipe. His crutch, without which the disabled boy is unable to walk, lies on the ground next to him. Inside, his mother works at household chores by a dim fire. She calls him inside to bed, and he finally and reluctantly obeys (“Amahl! Amahl!��). He comes inside and tells his mother that he wanted to stay outside to see the star that is shining above their house toward the east--”as large as a window, and the star has a tail, and it moves across the sky like a chariot on fire.�� His mother doesn’t believe him, shrugging it off as another of the boy’s famously tall tales (“O Mother You Should Go Outside; Stop Bothering Me!��). She clasps him in her arms and begins to weep, thinking of what might become of the two of them--she