''Silent Night'' is an
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
by composer
Kevin Puts
Kevin Matthew Puts (born January 3, 1972) is an American composer, best known for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera, ''Silent Night''.
Early life and education
Puts was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in Alma, Michi ...
and librettist
Mark Campbell. As ''Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts'' the work had its
world premiere
A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition.
A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its firs ...
at the
Ordway Theater
The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, hosts a variety of performing arts, such as touring Broadway musicals, orchestra, opera, and cultural performers, and produces local musicals. It is home to several lo ...
, Saint Paul, Minnesota, on November 12, 2011 under the directorship and dramaturgy of
Eric Simonson
Eric Simonson (born June 27, 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American writer and director in theatre, film and opera. He is a member of Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, and the author of plays '' Lombardi'', ''Fake'', ''Honest'', '' Magic/B ...
. As ''Silent Night'', the opera had its East Coast premiere at the Philadelphia
Academy of Music on February 8, 2013. It premiered in the Southwest at
Bass Performance Hall with
Fort Worth Opera
Fort Worth Opera is the oldest continually-performing opera company in the state of Texas and among the oldest in the United States, according to the company. While originally presenting operas one at a time over a fall/winter season, it changed ...
on May 4, 2014. The European premiere took place on October 24, 2014, in a new production by
Tomer Zvulun
Tomer Zvulun (born in 1976 in Israel) is an Israeli stage director. Since 2013 he is the General and Artistic Director of Atlanta Opera.
Life and career
Zvulun was born in Israel. He was a medic during his military service in the Israeli army ...
, at the
Wexford Festival Opera
Wexford Festival Opera () is an opera festival that takes place in the town of Wexford in south-eastern Ireland during the months of October and November.
The festival began in 1951 under Tom Walsh and a group of opera lovers who quickly gene ...
in Ireland. In 2014 the work was staged at the
Calgary Opera
Calgary Opera is a Canadian opera company based in Calgary, Alberta. The company has its administrative base at the Mamdani Opera Centre, a facility in the Wesley United Church, since July 2005. The company gives its seasonal mainstage productio ...
and the
Cincinnati Opera
Cincinnati Opera is an American opera company based in Cincinnati, Ohio and the second oldest opera company in the United States (after the New York Metropolitan Opera). Beginning with its first season in 1920, Cincinnati Opera has produced operas ...
, The Wexford production was performed at the Atlanta Opera and in 2015 it was performed at the
Opéra de Montréal and the
Lyric Opera of Kansas City. It received its West Coast premiere a
Opera San Joseon February 11, 2017. The Glimmerglass Festival and University of Kentucky Opera Theatre presented the opera in 2018. It won the 2012
Pulitzer Prize for Music
The Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of seven Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually in Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first given in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year, and this was eventually converted ...
.
Background
The libretto is based on the multilingual
screenplay by
Christian Carion for the 2005 film ''
Joyeux Noël
:''Joyeux Noel means Merry Christmas in French. For other uses, see Christmas (disambiguation) and Merry Christmas (disambiguation)''
''Joyeux Noël'' ''('Merry Christmas')'' is a 2005 war drama film based on the Christmas truce of December ...
'' that tells a story during the historical short-lived spontaneous 1914
Christmas truce between enemy combatants in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
According to characters and situations, the libretto is mostly sung in English, French and German, but also some Italian and Latin.
The opera was commissioned by
Minnesota Opera
Minnesota Opera is a performance organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was founded as the Center Opera Company in 1963 by the Walker Art Center, and is known for premiering such diverse works as ''Where the Wild Things Are'' by Oliver ...
as part of its New Works Initiative in co-production with
Opera Philadelphia
Opera Philadelphia (prior to 2013 Opera Company of Philadelphia (OCP)) is an American opera company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is the city's only company producing grand opera. The organization produces one festival in September (Festival O ...
. For Kevin Puts, it was his first opera, while Mark Campbell had written librettos before.
Campbell remarked that the core message of the opera is "'War is not sustainable when you come to know your enemy as a person.' When you see that the person you might be shooting has a child or a wife or has this life at home and they’re just not the enemy, then it becomes very difficult if not impossible to sustain war."
Roles
Synopsis
Prologue
Summer, 1914: At a
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
opera house the performance is disrupted by the announcement of
war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
. The life and career of the singers Anna Sørensen and Nikolaus Sprink changes, as Nikolaus has to go to war. In
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
, William urges his younger brother Jonathan to enlist. In
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, pregnant Madeleine is angry as her husband Audebert departs for war.
Act 1
December 23, 1914: An attack by French and Scottish soldiers on the German line fails. Nikolaus stabs a man and despairs at the violence. William is shot and dies.
In the bunker later, the soldiers are shocked by the slaughter.
December 24, 1914: In the morning, little Christmas trees are delivered to the German soldiers, a gift of the
Kronprinz who is camping in a chalet nearby. Nikolaus is ordered to sing for him later and looks forward to reunite with Anna at that occasion. The French soldiers receive wine, sausages, and chocolates. The Scottish soldiers get crates of whiskey.
Later, in the evening, Anna and Nikolaus perform for the Kronprinz. Nikolaus has to return to the front, and Anna follows him.
At night, a French soldier moves out with some grenades to infiltrate the German line. Some Scottish soldiers start singing. Nikolaus responds with a Christmas song ("
Silent Night
"Silent Night" (german: "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht", links=no, italic=no) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an ...
"), soon the Scottish bagpiper starts to accompany him, and Nikolaus raises a Christmas tree on the bunker. The Christmas truce starts as the lieutenants agree to stop fighting until the morning. The soldiers come out and the French soldier returns without using his grenades. The soldiers intermingle, talk, and exchange provisions. Anna appears. Father Palmer conducts a mass. Anna sings of peace. Jonathan, however, finds the body of his brother and vows to take revenge.
Act 2
December 25, 1914: In the morning Jonathan buries his brother. A decision is made to extend the truce to allow for the burial of other soldiers.
Later in the morning Father Palmer delivers the
last rites
The last rites, also known as the Commendation of the Dying, are the last prayers and ministrations given to an individual of Christian faith, when possible, shortly before death. They may be administered to those awaiting execution, mortall ...
as the bodies are carried away.
During the day, the news of the truce reaches the British, French, and German headquarters. It is received with disbelief, anger, and the determination to punish the soldiers.
In the evening Horstmayer wants to arrest Nikolaus for insubordination, but Anna takes his hand and leads him across the no-man's land toward the French side. Horstmayer's order to shoot him is ignored. Nikolaus and Anna ask the French for asylum.
December 26, 1914: The British Major punishes the Scottish soldiers by transferring them to the front lines. On his order, Jonathan shoots a German soldier crossing the battlefield. The soldier is actually the Frenchman, Ponchel, in a German uniform who was disguised to cross the lines and visit his mother. The French General orders Audebert to Verdun and disbands his unit. The Kronprinz transfers the German soldiers to
Pomerania
Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...
.
The no-man's land is empty at the end.
Critical reception
Puts' first opera was very well received, called "a remarkable debut".
It was noted that it usually takes "a few tries to write an effective work".
Larry Fuchsberg opined that "one senses that (Puts) has found his métier," admiring his ability to manage heterogeneous musical materials.
Gale Martin called the work "a contemporary opera but not necessarily a modern opera" as it offered musicality and avoided dissonance, and thought it to be a "work crucial to the development and appreciation of opera as a relevant modern art form".
The premiere run in 2011 was sold out.
Awards
In 2012 Kevin Puts was named the
Pulitzer Prize Winner in Music for ''Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts''.
See also
*
List of Christmas operas
Christmas operas are operas which are thematically based on either the Nativity of Jesus or secular Christmas stories. The earliest Christmas operas appeared in the early 17th century, not long after the creation of the art form. Because of the ba ...
References
External links
Prologue, act 1, and act 2 NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
{{Authority control
Operas by Kevin Puts
2011 operas
Multiple-language operas
English-language operas
French-language operas
German-language operas
Italian-language operas
Latin-language operas
Operas based on films
Operas set in Europe
Operas
World War I fiction
Operas set in the 20th century
Operas set in France
Pulitzer Prize for Music-winning works