the Nativity

Long a fan of John Adams and his collaborations with the director-librettist Peter Sellars, Blain-Cruz particularly loved their 2000 oratorio “El Niño,” a blending of the Nativity story with ancient and modern texts, like poetry by Rosario Castellanos and Gabriela Mistral.

Now that dream is taking shape on the Met stage in a vibrant, multi-colored production that uses puppets, projections, dancers, an onstage chorus and even a flying boat to tell the Nativity story through the eyes of Mary.

“My soul’s above the sea and whistling a dream,” he sang, a passage from the Nativity oratorio “El Niño” by John Adams, in which Tines makes his Met debut this month.

All Eastern Orthodox agree that Dec. 25 is the date of Christmas, or the Feast of the Nativity, as they call it.

You can imagine the hate-watching that will be occurring among Florida State fans, who have written off Herbstreit now to the point that his “Merry Christmas” tweet featuring a picture of the nativity received replies like “There was no room at the inn. Just like you made sure there was no room for FSU in the playoffs” and “I think Jesus would have gone with on-the-field results over the eye test.”