Opera Review: Silent Night

This Wexford Festival Opera production was not a typical exhumation of a buried historical gem, but a European premiere of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning opera by American composer-and-librettist team, Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell.

Silent Night, based on the 2005 film Joyeux Noel, and on the real-life Christmas Eve truce in the trenches of WWI, chimed perfectly with the spirit of the commemoration of that war’s centenary.

“Wexford, with its political elite, was unlike any other county in 1914. It was the fiefdom of John Redmond, the man who paved the way for Ireland’s entry into the war,” wrote Tom Mooney in an essay in the programme notes.

A vivid, cinematic score, dramatic staging and clear, delineated performances across a huge ensemble of 46 singers made this a thoroughly memorable, moving evening. Director Tomer Zvulun set the action on three tiers, one for each nationality.

The battlefield, with mound of stones and highlighted sky, evoked iconic war images. Composer Kevin Puts, in his first opera, mixed a panoply of styles and techniques to infuse the dramatic action. Whether solemn lament, jovial banter, battle scene explosions or rousing tri-lingual vocal counterpoint, nothing seemed forced.

The costumes may have been muddy, but musically the texture was always clear and the orchestra, under Michael Christie, sounded rich and sonorous, or spectral, as directed.

Thrilling as the swooping and soaring elegiac strings and strident brass effects were, just as effective were the scenes where Puts reined it all in. At times, we heard just a ‘silence magnifique’ or the barest musical scaffold.

Sprink’s tormented cri de coeur was accompanied by a single held note on viola. And then there were the bagpipes that accompanied a simple hymn tune.

Of the Irish contingent, it was good to have heard Kerry baritone Gavan Ring, sounding fine in the role of Scots Lieutenant. Sinead Mulhearn added a divine Latin benediction and a feminine grace.

A tribute to all who lost their lives in WWI, including 900 Wexford men, this was a moving and memorable evening.