Atlanta’s Opera’s cinematic ‘Silent Night’ offers a hopeful moment of peace

Kevin Puts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning opera returns to the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre stage this weekend.

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The tides of war are an omnipresent undercurrent in the realm of opera. Centuries of blood and thunder have erupted across the stages of the world, as empires rise and fall against the crescendos of Wagnerian imperialism, with the heroics of gods and men alike unfolding in the balance.

Such bombastic upheavals are the stuff of instant drama, but with Silent Night, running November 7 through November 15 at the Cobb Energy Centre, the Atlanta Opera seeks to explore the nature of the human soul that emerges in delicate moments of peace.

When I interviewed composer Kevin Puts for Emily – No Prisoner Be, his collaborative project with vocalist Joyce DiDonato and the Time For Three string trio setting the poems of Emily Dickinson to music, it was a discussion of the tumultuous inner world of the individual. With Silent Night, the composer explores a moment of peace amidst the outer turmoil of warring factions. Based on the 2005 film Joyeux Noël, the story explores the true story of the Christmas truce of 1914, in which British, German and French soldiers paused armed combat to celebrate the yuletide season.

As I sit to discuss the production with Atlanta Opera General and Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun, I can’t help but point out that the last time we spoke, it was to discuss the AO’s 2023 production of Rigoletto, a piece heavily imbued with the director’s personal feelings toward the then-recent Israel-Hamas war. In that light, I couldn’t help but wonder if he saw this production of Silent Night as a sort of hopeful answer to Rigoletto’s darkness. 

“I guess it depends how you look at it,” he ponders. “I’ve been with Silent Night for over 15 years now. It’s not a new piece for me. I directed the European premiere of it in 2014 in Wexford, Ireland.” Zvulun brought that same production first to Atlanta, New York and other U.S. cities.

The story, he explains, is an eternally relevant one but all the more appropriate given the modern state of world affairs. “I don’t know how many wars are going on in the world,” he explains. “Somebody needs to count and tell us. I think there’s dozens. Telling a story that is about friendship and camaraderie and reminding everybody in the world that music and art is what unites us against all the politicians that are there to divide us. I feel like it’s an evergreen story that deserves to be told.”

Silent Night would be powerful enough on its own, but it runs in conjunction with a related project, All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914. A production of Theatrical Outfit, the piece runs December 2 through December 27 and is meant to be seen as an informative follow-up to the Atlanta Opera’s cinematic theatricality. 

Director Matt Torney describes the work as “an a cappella opera for 10 voices mixed with verbatim texts from people who were actually there: excerpts from diaries, military orders, newspaper articles.” A cast of 10 actors performs arrangements of period Christmas songs that are referenced in the letters, along with actual military songs.

“You get the all-the-bells-and-whistles fictional version up the road,” says Torey, “and then this intimate time with a documentary music/theater piece.” As we discuss the breadth and width of the two projects, that metaphor continues to dominate: One is the big-budget Hollywood masterpiece, the other is the Ken Burns documentary on the same subject. 

Zvulun, for his part, finds the metaphor in keeping with his perspective on Puts’ compositional intent. “When I think of Kevin Puts, I don’t think avant-garde at all. I think John Williams. His greatest influence, based on what he’s told me and what I hear in his music, is film music.” Though Zvulun is quick to also cite Puccini and Stravinsky as influences on the composer, he sees the soundtrack component factoring most prominently. 

It’s a reflection of Zvulun’s own artistic vision. “Film is my greatest influence,” he declares. “Often, our style at the Atlanta Opera is called ‘cinematic.’” To that end, he cites the directors Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg as his greatest influences. He paraphrases a quote from the latter, describing films as “murals of epic action” with people asking “who am I?” at the center. 

“When I heard that, I thought, ‘He is describing every grand opera that I know,’” says Zvulun. “At the same time, he’s describing every great Steven Spielberg movie that I’ve ever seen.” He’s quick to point out that the observation is as true for Spielberg’s Schindler’s List as it is for Verdi’s Aida. “The reason we are drawn into those stories, in addition to the spectacle of it all, the way they move everything and the colorfulness, is that there are human beings you are deeply drawn into. I think with Silent Night, Kevin Puts and [librettist] Mark Campbell created the most cinematic opera that I know.” 

Zvulun’s vision for Silent Night and All Is Calm is grand, but it’s something he’s ready to pull off. As he’s proud to point out, the Atlanta Opera has been nominated for best opera company in the world by the International Opera Awards, a category it shares with the English National Opera and the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, among others. 

Whether Zvulun and company will win that coveted distinction remains to be seen. As it stands, the Atlanta Opera and Theatrical Outfit stand ready to spend this year’s Christmas season commemorating a rare moment in the madness of war when all was calm and all was bright. 

Where and when

Atlanta Opera’s Silent Night will be performed at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre at 7:30 p.m. on November 7, November 10 and November 13; and at 3 p.m. on November 15.

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Jordan Owen began writing about music professionally at the age of 16 in Oxford, Mississippi. A 2006 graduate of the Berklee College of Music, he is a professional guitarist, bandleader and composer. He is currently the lead guitarist for the jazz group Other Strangers, the power metal band Axis of Empires and the melodic death/thrash metal band Century Spawn.