Did you miss last year's Front Row Washington performance of Jon Deak’s The Passion of Scrooge or A Christmas Carol? You have another opportunity this year on Monday, December 19th at 9pm on WETA Classical to hear this classic holiday story told in a way you haven’t heard it before with the 21st Century Consort led by Christopher Kendall.
Jon Deak is an American composer, born in Indiana in 1943, who transformed Dickens' masterpiece into an opera for baritone and chamber orchestra. In the composer’s own words:
The piece turned out to be a work for baritone and chamber ensemble because I felt that it was best to have just one person up there. I think it works perfectly that way because, in this story, all the characters come out of Scrooge’s head—the whole drama takes place within his head. If we had a lot of characters there, it could be didactic: society putting pressure on Scrooge to reform. But this way it’s internal, depicting his own struggles. That’s why I changed the title to something that sounds rather Dickensian in style: The Passion of Scrooge or A Christmas Carol.
Described in more detail in the program notes, the composer writes:
The piece is cast in two acts. During the first we are introduced to Scrooge and his departed partner Marley, who comes as the first Christmas Eve ghost to warn Scrooge that he must change his grasping greedy ways. Although our virtuoso baritone soloist (William Sharp) will embody both roles of Scrooge and Marley, various instruments within the ensemble provide close emotional underpinning to specific roles: the contrabass (at times aided by the bass clarinet) to Scrooge’s angry, injured self; the cello to Marley; the viola to Bob Cratchit; and so on. The harp embodies the ghost of Christmas Past, the horn as Christmas Present, and spectral strings and effects create the role of Christmas Future. The second act introduces these three ghosts of Christmas who confront Scrooge, provoke his passion, and help him accomplish his increasingly urgent transformation. And finally, then, we can have some urgently needed fun!
This is an exciting work and another reason why I enjoy sharing live concert recordings from the Washington area with you every Monday evening at 9.
If you want even more details and behind the scenes footage of how this work came together, enjoy the documentary!
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