List of Christmas operas

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The Metropolitan Opera at Christmas time with a large poster for Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel displayed in the window Met Christmas Tree (6766482405).jpg
The Metropolitan Opera at Christmas time with a large poster for Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel displayed in the window

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 ban on secular theatrical works during the season of Advent, these early Christmas operas, while elaborately staged, were based on religious themes relating to the Nativity. By the mid 19th century the ban on secular operas during Advent had ceased, and operas based on a wider array of Christmas themes, such as Santa Claus and King Wenceslaus, emerged. Several operas have been inspired by Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol , including works by composers Bernard Herrmann and Thea Musgrave. The story of the Magi has also been the basis of several operas, including Gian Carlo Menotti's 1951 opera Amahl and the Night Visitors . Initially written for television performance, Menotti's opera has become the only modern Christmas opera to earn an enduring place in the live opera performance repertoire. In the 21st century, composer Kevin Puts' Silent Night (2011) achieved critical success and won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2012.

Contents

History

Mr. Fezziwig's Ball, from the first edition of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, the inspiration for numerous Christmas operas A Christmas Carol - Mr. Fezziwig's Ball.jpg
Mr. Fezziwig's Ball, from the first edition of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol , the inspiration for numerous Christmas operas

The first Christmas operas, dating from the early 17th century, had librettos based on the Nativity of Jesus and were privately performed. At various times well into the 19th century, public theatres in Italy and other Catholic countries were closed during the season of Advent, the four weeks up to and including Christmas Eve. The opera season customarily recommenced on St. Stephen's Day, 26 December. [1] Numerous world premieres have taken place in Italy on that day, although all were on secular subjects and unrelated to Christmas. [lower-alpha 1] The prohibition of secular theatrical performances during Advent was to some extent circumvented by the performance of azioni sacre, operas on religious themes, often with elaborate staging. One of the earliest Christmas operas of this type was Giovanni Battista da Gagliano and Jacopo Peri's Il gran natale di Christo salvator nostro (The Great Nativity of Christ, Our Saviour), first performed on Christmas Day 1622.

The second half of the 19th century, when the Advent restrictions were no longer in place, saw new operas on a variety of Christmas themes and usually premiering during the Christmas season, a practice which has continued into the 21st century. Some have been directly based on the Nativity itself or figures closely connected to it such as the Three Magi, while others have focused on Christmas celebrations or traditional figures such as Father Christmas, Knecht Ruprecht, or King Wenceslaus. Nikolai Gogol's short story Christmas Eve has been the inspiration of three Russian language operas: Tchaikovsky's Vakula the Smith (1876) and its revised version Cherevichki (1887), and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve (1895). At least nine Christmas operas have been based on Charles Dickens's novella, A Christmas Carol , including one in German and one in Italian. [2]

On Christmas Eve 1950 Gian Carlo Menotti's Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors was premiered by the NBC Opera Theater as the inaugural presentation made by the newly created Hallmark Hall of Fame . [3] The first opera written specifically for television, it was immensely popular at its premiere and was dubbed by Life magazine as a Christmas Classic in 1952. [4] Menotti never intended for the work to remain solely confined to the medium of television, and Amahl and the Night Visitors has since been the only Christmas themed opera to become an enduring part of the live opera performance repertory; particularly with smaller opera companies and at colleges and music conservatories. [5] While predominately overlooked by larger opera houses, Amahl has been performed and recorded by The Royal Opera and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The success of Menotti's opera is also credited with inspiring the future investment in Christmas specials on American television which resulted in the creation of more than 50 Christmas operas and musicals for that medium. [6]

Although Amahl and the Night Visitors has enjoyed a measure of success, no Christmas opera to date has been able to achieve the same wide popularity as Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker or Handel's Messiah . [7] Several 21st century composers have attempted to create a popular Christmas work for the opera medium, including Mark Adamo whose Becoming Santa Claus was well received at the Dallas Opera in December 2015. [7] [8] [9] Also successful is John Adams' Christmas opera-oratorio El Niño (2000) which has been semi-staged by several opera companies and orchestras internationally. Of further importance is Kevin Puts' Pulitzer Prize winning opera Silent Night (2011) which has been staged by several American opera companies and by the Wexford Festival Opera in 2014. [10] [11] [12] The original 2011 production of that work by the Minnesota Opera was filmed for the PBS program Great Performances . [13]

While not based on Christmas themes, some operas based on fairy tales or nursery rhymes such as Massenet's Cendrillon , [lower-alpha 2] Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel , and Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland have been traditionally performed during the Christmas season. Hansel and Gretel, which premiered in Germany on 23 December 1893, has been a Christmas staple at the Metropolitan Opera since 1905. On Christmas Day 1931 it became the first opera to be transmitted live on the radio from the Met. [15] Puccini's La bohème , whose first two acts take place on Christmas Eve, is also frequently presented at some point during the Christmas season, especially at the Metropolitan Opera, London's Royal Opera House, and Opera Australia. [16] [17] [18]

List of Christmas operas

Stage setting for the Prologue of Per la festivita del Santo Natale in its first performance (Rome, 1727) Per la festivita del Santo Natale by Metastasio, stage setting for the Prologue, 1727.jpg
Stage setting for the Prologue of Per la festività del Santo Natale in its first performance (Rome, 1727)

The following is a chronological, but not exhaustive, list of operas with librettos explicitly based on Christmas themes.

17th and 18th centuries

19th century

Oleg Videman as Vakula in a 2005 performance of Tchaikovsky's Cherevichki at La Scala, Milan OlegVideman cherevichki1.JPG
Oleg Videman as Vakula in a 2005 performance of Tchaikovsky's Cherevichki at La Scala, Milan

20th century

The vocal score for Leroux's opera Les cadeaux de Noel which premiered in Paris on Christmas Day 1915 Les cadeaux de Noel, piano vocal score cover 1915.jpg
The vocal score for Leroux's opera Les cadeaux de Noël which premiered in Paris on Christmas Day 1915
The final scene of Pavel Helebrand's 1996 opera Jeslicky svateho Frantiska
(The Nativity Scene of Saint Francis) in one of its many performances in Ostrava Jeslicky svateho Frantiska 1 (2009).JPG
The final scene of Pavel Helebrand's 1996 opera Jesličky svatého Františka (The Nativity Scene of Saint Francis) in one of its many performances in Ostrava
Frederic Villiers' depiction of the 1914 Christmas truce, the setting for Kevin Puts' 2011 opera Silent Night Christmas Truce by Frederic Villiers.jpg
Frederic Villiers' depiction of the 1914 Christmas truce, the setting for Kevin Puts' 2011 opera Silent Night

21st century

See also

Notes

  1. Among the operas which have premiered in Italy on St. Stephen's Day are Donizetti's Anna Bolena and Lucrezia Borgia , Bellini's Norma , and Rossini's Aureliano in Palmira .
  2. Cendrillon is particularly popular in France for Christmas performances. [14]
  3. Giovanni Battista da Gagliano (1594–1651) was the younger brother of Marco da Gagliano. [19]
  4. Jacopo Cicognini (1577–1633) was the father of Giacinto Andrea Cicognini. [20]

Related Research Articles

<i>Amahl and the Night Visitors</i> Opera by Gian Carlo Menotti

Amahl and the Night Visitors is an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti with an original English libretto by the composer. It was commissioned by NBC and first performed by the NBC Opera Theatre on December 24, 1951, in New York City at NBC Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center, where it was broadcast live on television from that venue as the debut production of the Hallmark Hall of Fame. It was the first opera specifically composed for television in the United States.

<i>Ivanhoé</i> 1826 opera by Gioachino Rossini

Ivanhoé is an 1826 pastiche opera in three acts with music by Gioachino Rossini to a French-language libretto by Émile Deschamps and Gabriel-Gustave de Wailly, after Walter Scott's 1819 novel of the same name. The music was adapted, with the composer's permission, by the music-publisher Antonio Pacini from Rossini's operas, namely Semiramide, La Cenerentola, La gazza ladra, and Tancredi in order to introduce his music to Paris. An examination of the score shows that Pacini also used music from Bianca e Faliero, Armida, Maometto II, Aureliano in Palmira, Sigismondo, Torvaldo e Dorliska, Mosè in Egitto and an amount of newly composed music including fanfares and the gallop that was later to become famous from its inclusion in Guglielmo Tell. The work was premiered on 15 September 1826, at the Odéon Theatre.

<i>Gli equivoci</i>

Gli equivoci, is an Italian opera buffa by Stephen Storace to a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors.

<i>Scanderbeg</i> (opera) Opera by Antonio Vivaldi

Scanderbeg is an opera in three acts composed by Antonio Vivaldi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Salvi. It was first performed at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence on 22 June 1718 to mark the re-opening of the theatre to public performances. While the libretto has been preserved, only fragments of the original score remain.

Giulietta e Romeo is a dramma per musica by composer Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli with an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Maria Foppa after the 1530 novella of the same name by Luigi da Porto. The opera premiered at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 30 January 1796.

<i>Antigone</i> (Honegger) Opera by Arthur Honegger

Antigone is an opera in three acts by Arthur Honegger to a French libretto by Jean Cocteau based on the tragedy Antigone by Sophocles. Honegger composed the opera between 1924 and 1927. It premiered on 28 December 1927 at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie with sets designed by Pablo Picasso and costumes by Coco Chanel.

<i>Medea</i> (Pacini)

Medea is an opera in three acts composed by Giovanni Pacini to a libretto by Benedetto Castiglia. It premiered on 28 November 1843 at the Teatro Carolino in Palermo, conducted by the composer with Geltrude Bortolotti in the title role. The libretto is based on the plays Medea by Euripides and Médée by Pierre Corneille.

<i>Issé</i> (opera)

Issé is an operatic pastorale héroïque by the French composer André Cardinal Destouches. Initially it was in three acts. The definitive revised version consists of a prologue and five acts. The libretto was by Antoine Houdar de la Motte. Although Destouches was only 25 at the time of its premiere, it is considered his best score.

<i>Didone abbandonata</i> (Albinoni)

Didone abbandonata was an opera in three acts composed by Tomaso Albinoni. Albinoni's music was set to Pietro Metastasio's libretto, Didone abbandonata, which was in turn based on the story of Dido and Aeneas from the fourth book of Virgil's Aeneid. The opera premiered on 26 December 1724 at the Teatro San Cassiano in Venice and was the first time that an opera based on a Metastasio libretto was performed in Venice.

<i>Didone abbandonata</i> (Sarro)

Didone abbandonata is an opera in three acts composed by Domenico Sarro to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio of the same name which was based on the story of Dido and Aeneas from the fourth book of Virgil's Aeneid. The opera premiered on 1 February 1724 at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples.

<i>Amelia Goes to the Ball</i> Opera buffa by Gian Carlo Menotti

Amelia al ballo is a one-act opera buffa by Gian Carlo Menotti, who set his own Italian libretto. Composed during 1936 when Menotti was in his mid-twenties, it was the composer's first mature opera and first critical success. The opera recounts a series of farcical events as a young Italian socialite overcomes obstacles to her attendance at the first ball of the season.

<i>Conchita</i> (opera)

Conchita is an opera in four acts and six scenes by composer Riccardo Zandonai. The work uses an Italian language libretto by Maurizio Vaucaire and Carlo Zangarini which is based on Pierre Louÿs's 1898 novel La Femme et le pantin. The work premièred in Milan at the Teatro dal Verme on 14 October 1911 with soprano Tarquinia Tarquini, who later married Zandonai in 1917, in the title role. Her portrayal was lauded by critics and she went on to perform Conchita at the Royal Opera, London (1912), the Cort Theatre in San Francisco (1912), the Philharmonic Auditorium in Hollywood (1912), the Heilig Theatre in Portland (1912), the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia (1912), the Chicago Grand Opera Company (1913), and the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples (1913). The opera was published by G. Ricordi & Co in 1912.

<i>Létoile de Séville</i>

L'Étoile de Séville is a grand opera in four acts composed by Michael William Balfe to a libretto by Hippolyte Lucas based on Andrés de Claramonte's 1623 play La Estrella de Sevilla. It premiered at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris on 17 December 1845 with Rosine Stoltz in the title role.

Adelaide di Guesclino is an opera in two acts composed by Simon Mayr. The Italian libretto by Gaetano Rossi is based on Voltaire's 1734 play Adélaïde du Guesclin. The opera premiered at La Fenice in Venice on 1 May 1799 with Caterina Angiolini in the title role.

<i>La rosa bianca e la rosa rossa</i> Opera by Simon Mayr

La rosa bianca e la rosa rossa is an opera in two acts composed by Simon Mayr to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani. It premiered at the Teatro Sant'Agostino, Genoa, on 21 February 1813. Set in England against the backdrop of the Wars of the Roses, Romani's libretto is based on René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt's La rose blanche et la rose rouge. Mayr's opera has also been performed under the title Il trionfo dell'amicizia.

Fedra is an opera in two acts composed by Simon Mayr to an Italian-language libretto by Luigi Romanelli based on Racine's play Phèdre.

<i>Les cadeaux de Noël</i>

Les cadeaux de Noël is an opera in one act composed by Xavier Leroux to a French-language libretto by Émile Fabre. Described as a conte héroïque, it was premiered by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart Theatre in Paris on Christmas Day 1915. Its story of four children, whose parents had been killed by German soldiers but who nevertheless found hope in a seemingly bleak Christmas, had a particular resonance with French audiences in the midst of World War I. The opera was a great success in Paris, and subsequently performed in Italy, Monte Carlo and Latin America.

Il trionfo di Clelia, Wq. 31, is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck. It takes the form of a dramma per musica in three acts. The Italian-language libretto by Pietro Metastasio is based on several semi-legendary narratives concerning the founding of the Roman Republic. The opera premiered on 14 May 1763 at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Although rarely performed since then, it was revived in London in 2012 at the Royal Opera House's Linbury Studio.

<i>I Mori di Valenza</i>

I Mori di Valenza is an opera in four acts composed by Amilcare Ponchielli to a libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Ponchielli began composing the work in 1874, but at the time of his death in 1886, only the piano score for the first three acts and part of the fourth had been completed. The opera was later revised by Ponchielli's son Annibale and the orchestration and fourth act were completed by Arturo Cadore. It premiered on 17 March 1914 at the Théâtre du Casino in Monaco and ran for three performances.

Nitocri is an opera in two acts composed by Saverio Mercadante to libretto by Apostolo Zeno adapted by Lodovico Piossasco Feys. The libretto is a fictionalised account of the Egyptian queen Nitocris. The opera premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin on 26 December 1824.

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