REVIEW: May Festival makes radiant return to stage with ‘El Niño’

A miracle happened at the end of John Adams’ “El Niño,” a Nativity oratorio, which opened the Cincinnati May Festival on Friday. The May Festival Youth Chorus entered the stage singing a charming folk song, “Una Palmera” (“A Palm Tree”), as baritone Ethan Vincent narrated the story of the palm tree that provides food and water for the Holy Family, from the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. After an evening-long journey through Adams’ modern “Messiah,” that simple melody sung by young…