Midway through Gian Carlo Menotti’s Christmas opera, a penniless widow sends her crippled son out into the winter night to ask their neighbors for food—not for themselves, though they went to bed hungry, but for the Three Kings, passing through on their way to pay tribute to the new-born Jesus. The neighbors arrive in great excitement and lay on a feast. Why, it might occur to us to wonder, don’t the neighbors share with the needy in their midst? For On Site Opera, performances of the piece at the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen are now an established tradition. Hoping to shine a light on housing instability, the company asks the public to come bearing donations of small, non-perishable food items. Apple cider and cookies are served after the performance. —Matthew Gurewitsch