[opera] Silent Night, Sun. Febr. 17, 2013, at the Academy of Music

[supercheesegirl]

Mom and I were really impressed by this modern opera. Set at the beginning of World War I, it tells the story of three groups of soldiers - German, French, and Scottish - and is sung in the characters' native languages. (Fascinating to hear opera sung in English at all, let alone Scottish-accented English.) The story is set by showing us a key character of each nationality going off to the war, and then the opera powerfully simulates the horrors of the battlefield. When the war that should have been over in six weeks stretches on for months, the characters find themselves trying to celebrate Christmas in the trenches, and the different factions are able to overcome their differences for the space of one day, allowing the soldiers to meet each other on what had been the battlefield and share their resources: chocolate and champagne from the French, Christmas trees and opera singers from the Germans, and whisky, bagpipes, and a priest from the Scottish. The forces continue the truce long enough to bury the dead, but then angry orders come from the higher-ups and the different companies are separated and sent to battle elsewhere.

Mom and I found the opera to be incredibly moving, and I even cried a few times. The only problem was that the opera didn't keep to its advertised running time - it started at 2:30 pm, and the two acts and intermission together should have been around 2 hours and 20 minutes. At 4:50 pm, though, the second act was still in full swing, and based on the synopsis in the program, wouldn't be done anytime soon. Mom and I had to leave early to catch the train, which was disappointing. We would've really liked to stay for the ending, but then we would've had to wait until after 6:00 for the next train and not get home until after 7, which wasn't an option. Sad.

Comments

[minkrose]

I love that story. I suspect the program would've mentioned this, but since I didn't see it in your post, I thought I'd mention that the story is actually true: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce

It's one of my favorite "gives me hope" moments in history.

Sad that you had to miss the ending, though! It sounds like an excellent opera.