The Classical Review

This has been a virtual American opera week in Miami. Following Frost Opera Theater’s intimately scaled production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Consul earlier in the week, Florida Grand Opera presented Kevin Puts’ Silent Night on Saturday night.

The score has been widely performed and won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for music. It proved worthy of that honor and more. A large audience at the Arsht Center awarded the cast and score a rousing, well-deserved ovation. Puts’ compelling, two-act music drama is striking, both musically and theatrically.

Silent Night centers around the true story of the Christmas truce of 1914 when, in the midst of the senseless carnage of World War I, troops from Germany, France and Great Britain ceased fighting on Christmas Eve and celebrated the holiday and their common humanity. While the characters in the opera are purely fictional, the story of their tragic plight, joys and sorrows is told with forceful impact. Mark Campbell’s libretto (based on the motion picture Joyeux Noel)  is intelligent and austerely constructed, moving with inexorable momentum to its sad conclusion. Only the concept of an operatic diva coming to the battle front with her beloved belies reality. Still, that love story gives the opera contrast and heart.

The most important component of any operatic work is the music and, here, Puts has risen to the occasion. His score vividly underlines the protagonists’ efforts to stay alive while serving their countries and their longing for peace, home and family. The choruses of German, Scottish and French troops are stirring but tinged with an aura of despair. A Mozartean pastiche in the opening scene at the Berlin opera suggests the world the players are called away from. Arias suggests the lyricism of Menotti and Samuel Barber but with a more austere touch. Puts’ orchestra writing is masterful, the tumultuous climaxes alternating with subtle, nuanced thematic lines.

The diva Anna Sorenson’s a cappella prayer for peace at the conclusion of Act I is deeply moving and powerful in its sheer simplicity. Puts’ imitation waltz music at a party for the German elite at the Kronprinz’s chateau throws into potent reality the disconnect of the privileged  political operatives from the soldiers dying at the trenches. The scene at headquarters of the commanders’ anger at the troops’ ceasefire and their propensity for violence and death was frightening with a touch of John Williams-style bombast.

In a co-production with Atlanta Opera and Opera Carolina, Florida Grand Opera has fielded a uniformly excellent cast and a stunning production. As German officer Nikolaus Sprink, Kameron Lopreore’s heroic tenor commands the stage in each of the opera star turned soldier’s scenes.

Sarah Joy Miller has a dual career as both operatic soprano and actress. (She is a cast member of the cable drama The Gilded Age.) One can only hope that her Hollywood efforts do not detract from her singing because Miller’s pure, silvery lyric soprano is special indeed. As the diva Anna Sørenson, her duets with Lopreore were highlights of the evening. So compelling a presence was Miller that she made one believe in the lovers’ unlikely defection to the French side. Elijah William Brown’s robust tenor gave voice to Scottish soldier Jonathan Dale’s powerful vow of revenge at the death of his brother in battle.

Alex DeSocio projected presence and authority as French Lieutenant Audebert with a manly baritone to match. Kyle Albertson’s bass-baritone resounded with blustery vehemence as German Lieutenant Horstmayer, but his sound turned warm as he supervised the burying of the dead on Christmas Day.

As the French barber Ponchel, Elliot Madore was luxury casting. Previously heard as the protagonists of Jorge Martin’s Before Night Falls and Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Florida Grand Opera, this veteran Met baritone was a poignant scene stealer.

Joseph O’ Shea made the most of the ill-fated William Dale’s early scenes, his baritone strong and virile. Mark Diamond was a dignified, compassionate Father Palmer. Catherine Meza, Andrew Garland, Craig Irvin, James Mancuso and William Dopp made fine contributions in less developed roles.

Florida Grand Opera has recently formed a new house orchestra (rather than the previously utilized pickup groups) under recently named music director Pablo Mielgo. In their first appearance in the pit, they acquitted themselves admirably, assaying a difficult contemporary score.

Christopher Allen led the FGO Orchestra in a riveting reading of Puts’ score that gave full rein to both the terror and the tenderness at the music’s searing heart. The ensemble’s playing was consistently unified and well coordinated.  Jared Peroune’s superb male chorus resounded in vociferous fashion.

One cannot give enough praise to Israeli director Tomer Zvulun’s staging. The battle scenes, aided by Erhard Rom’s projections and Robert M. Wierzel’s lighting and special effects, were both stunning and terrifying in their immediacy. The final tableaux of the first act with the troops at the edge of the stage carrying candles and facing the audience registered indelible pathos.

Zvulun made the contrasting elegance of the Kronprinz’s party all the more incongruous. The imagine of the desolate,  abandoned no man’s land at the end will remain etched in the memory. Rom’s three-level set, each for a different army, proved a magnetic visual embodiment of the soldiers’ isolation and struggle.

Silent Night is a terrific achievement – a powerful indictment of war and a reminder that, even in its midst, individual acts of kindness and humanity matter. Opera lovers who care about the future of the art should not miss the opportunity to see this wonderful production.

Silent Night will be repeated 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Arsht Center in Miami and 7:30 p.m. December 4 and 6 at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale.  Susanne Burgess sings Anna Sørenson on November 16 and December 4 and 6. fgo.org