Photo Courtesy of The Florentine Opera
“Home for the Holidays” is The Florentine Opera’s Christmas-themed show in their “@ the Center Series,” which brings opera to a small, black-box theater where singers are a mere few feet away from the audience. Familiar-looking Christmas decorations and lights cast a golden glow on the four singers and pianist, whom spectators listen to while enjoying the complimentary wine, chocolate and wonderfully appropriate hot chocolate. Everything is seemingly set up to wrap viewers up in a cocoon of coziness, creating a fertile ground to make them receptive to the holiday tunes.
The program stacks the beginning of the night with the more serious music, starting with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Call,” and continuing with Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The first notes, from baritone Samuel James Dewese, are rich and deep—the kind that slide on your skin and plunge you into the ambiance, until tenor Luke Selker, mezzo-soprano Meghan Folkerts and soprano Kathryn Henry join him on stage, accompanied by pianist Janna Ernst.
The “@ the Center Series” makes opera more accessible to persons who would not typically see or hear opera, and this show perfectly illustrates how: The small room helps the voices of the artists sound powerful, and the informal ambiance lets performers undo their ties and joke around between songs, especially as the latter—and lighter—part of the program approaches. Starting with “White Christmas” and including popular favorites like “Silent Night,” “Feliz Navidad” and “The Man with the Bag,” the performance clearly means to communicate cheer and make for a fun evening.
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Although informal, the singers are professionals and offer performances comparable to their mainstage shows. Several moments stand out, but Henry concluding the first half of the evening with “O Holy Night,” letting her own emotion wash over the audience in a mesmerizing performance, was a standout. To top it all off, the evening concluded with the timeless classic, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
Through Dec. 22 at the Wayne and Kristine Lueders Opera Center, 930 E. Burleigh St.
