AN OPERATIC CHRISTMAS
A Christmas tree emanates light through a big bay window, illuminating an otherwise dark home. It is a picturesque image, an exemplary representation of the winter holiday.
Despite the seemingly conventionalized traditions associated with the Christmas tree — from selecting the perfect evergreen at the tree farm to adorning it with ornaments while surrounded by family and friends — they are not universal for all.
The lack of these experiences and the desire to have them is all too familiar for the young Adelaide “Addie” Mills, the lead character in the 1972 television movie “The House Without a Christmas Tree,” starring Jason Robards. Her story resonates with struggling families everywhere, regardless of the determining circumstances.
This holiday season, Houston Grand Opera will share her relatable tale in the world premiere of an opera by the same name, a collaboration between composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Royce Vavrek.
“The holidays are a time of renewal and hope, whatever one’s religious traditions, and this joyous little opera is an important and moving story to share together,” said Patrick Summers, the opera’s artistic and music director.
Summers grew up in a small town in Indiana, similar to the fictional Clear River, Neb., where Addie lived with her melancholic, widowed father.
The film, which was later novelized into a book by Gail Rock, and its universal message played a major role throughout Summers’ childhood, being a holiday tradition in his household.
Small town life, Summers says, was monotonous until the Internet era. Times were quiet and slower paced. People shared stories; gossip spread quick. Everyone was personally acquainted with his or her neighbors.
“We all knew a family like that, one that had to deal with an unspoken pain at holiday time,” Summers says. “But in this story, those difficult memories are finally set free and the patterns broken.”
A writer living in New York, Addie recollects a special December from her youth, in which she won a fully decorated Christmas tree in a school contest. Emotions ran wild when she brought the tree home, but the holiday spirit ultimately healed her father’s broken heart.
The premiere of “The House without a Christmas Tree” is part of an ongoing series of family-friendly, holiday-themed operas funded by the Robert and Janice McNair Foundation, the first of which premiered in December of 2014.