By Marty Coffin Evans
On December 24, 1914, British, German and French front-line soldiers fighting in World War I set aside their weapons and met in No Man’s Land. Tokens of friendship were exchanged during that unprecedented meeting 100 years ago.
This December 5 during a noon lecture at the Museum of Boulder, CU Professor Martha Hanna explores “The Christmas Truce of 1914: Myths and Reality.” She addresses such questions as why this happened, what it signified, and why this truce has gained the mythic significance in the cultural memory of war.
While some might think “Silent Night” connects to the familiar holiday carol with roots in Germany, another version takes a different form. In a December 17 collaborative fundraising effort, Colorado Music Festival (CMF) and Center for Musical Arts premiere the film screening of “Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts” at the Dairy Center for the Arts, a first for Colorado audiences.
This Christmas truce story premiered on November 12, 2011 in St. Paul at the Minnesota Opera under the baton of Michael Christie, former CMC conductor. Two subsequent premieres occurred – East Coast in 2013 at the Philadelphia Academy of Music and Southwest in 2014 at the Bass Performance Hall with Fort Worth Opera. “Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts” was also shown on PBS last year.
The opera’s libretto, written by CU theater graduate Mark Campbell, retells the true story of the “Christmas Truce of 1914.” Considered one of the most brutal wars in history, the story line recounts this very unusual moment of peace.
Campbell remarks about the opera’s core message, “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.”
John Robert Lindsey, CU graduate in voice performance, sings the tenor role of Jonathan Dale from the Scottish side. The libretto is sung mostly in English, French, and German, with some Italian and Latin, depending on the characters and situations.
The Gala begins at 5:30 with a cocktail hour, hors d’oeuvres and silent auction. The film screening of “Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts” follows at 7:30. A 9 o’clock reception completes the event with homemade plum pudding.
For audience members with tickets to the Silent Night Gala, admission to Professor Hanna’s December 5 lecture is free. Tickets are available at the Dairy Center Box Office, 2590 Walnut St., 303-440-7826 or tickets.thedairy.org/online/cmf