Last night I attended a preview of the world premiere of Minnesota’s Opera “Silent Night”, and if I wasn’t a fan of opera previous to this important and moving production, I certainly am now.
The opera is based on the screenplay for the film, Joyeux Noël, written by Christian Carion of actual events that took place on Christmas Eve during World War I when a short truce was declared by the French, Scottish and Germans to remember Christmas, which was followed by another truce as the men took time to bury the dead that lay decomposing on the battlefield.
The war-torn and exhausted men went from trying to kill one another to sharing pictures of their wives and children, some of them finding it difficult to continue in a war where they have looked into the eyes of and shared bits of humanity with their supposed enemy. From one man to another during that truce, they found that they were much alike, perhaps the biggest difference being only in the color and design of their uniforms.
Silent Night gets to the heart of war from its beginning as it portrays through its music, song, and emotion, the last days of summer in 1914 War when war is declared, disrupting the lives of the men who would go to fight for their country as well as the women they would leave behind.
At an opera house in Berlin the announcement interrupts the lives of Internationally-famed opera singers Nikolaus Sprink and Anna Sørensen. In Paris, it tears at the marital seams of Lieutenant Audebert and his wife Madeleine, who is pregnant with the couple’s first child. From a small Scottish church it inspires William to enlist, taking with him his brother, a priest.
The hardships of World War I on families and on the men who fought it, particularly, are eloquently captured, emanating thoughts of current wars and current hardships, making Silent Night as relevant today as it was in 1914. There are wars and then there are the people who fight them, all one from the other not that much different.
Silent Night is a Minnesota Opera New Works Initiative Production, an initiative that according to Minnesota Opera’s President and General Director Allan Naplan aspires to invigorate the operatic repertoire with an infusion of contemporary works, such as Silent Night. It’s a history making goal and with productions like the world premiere of Silent Night and MN Opera’s dedication to acquiring superb talent for their productions, it seems they are making great progress in achieving that lofty goal.
Silent night was composed by Kevin Puts working with Librettist Mark Campbell and Conductor Michael Christie, all three very talented, successful men in the music world.
If you have an opportunity to see Silent Night, take it, it’s a great piece of work that will touch your heart and leave you thinking about the atrocities of war and its impact on the people involved in it, long after the performance has ended. Kudos to all involved in bringing it into production.
The world premiere of Silent Night opens on November 12th at the Ordway in St. Paul with performances on November 15, 17, 19 and 20, 2011. The Opera is sung in English, German, French, Italian and Latin with English translations projected above the stage.
More information about the World Premiere of Silent Night can be found at Minnesota Opera (www.mnopera.org)
