Silent Night: Wexford Festival Opera

About the Event

Silent Night by Kevin Puts will receive its European premiere at Wexford Festival Opera.

Silent Night was commissioned by Minnesota Opera and first performed in 2011 to great critical acclaim. In 2012 it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music. The opera’s multilingual libretto by Mark Campbell was inspired by the 2005 film Joyeux Noël about the spontaneous 1914 Christmas truce between enemy combatants in the First World War. Its core message is that war is not sustainable when you come to know your enemy as a person.

Kevin Puts, from St Louis, Missouri, is regarded as one of the most important composers of his generation. Silent Night is his first opera and tells the stories of French, German and Scottish soldiers caught up in war, and the humanity that is shown as they lay down their weapons and join in the singing with its message of peace.

Cast:

The German Side:
Nikolaus Sprink: Chad Johnson
Anna Sorensen: Sinéad Mulhern
Lieutenant Horstmayer: Philip Horst
Kronprinz: Alex Tsilogiannis

The Scottish Side:
Johnathan Dale: Alex Sprague
William Dale: Ian Beadle
Father Palmer: Quentin Hayes
Lieutenant Gordon: Gavan Ring
British Major: Koji Terada

The French Side:
Lieutenant Audebert: Mathew Worth
Poncel: Quirijn de Lang
General Audebert: Scott Wilde
Madeleine Audebert: Kate Allen
Gueusselin: Jamie Rock

Conductor: Michael Christie
Stage Director: Tomer Zvulun
Set Designer: Erhard Rom
Costume Designer: Vita (Vita) Tzykun
Lighting Designer: DM Wood