The House Without A Christmas Tree
- Ana De Archuleta
- Aug 3, 2022
- 2 min read
Music by: Ricky Ian Gordon
Libretto by: Royce Vavrek
Duration: 80 minutes
Originally Commissioned: Houston Grand Opera, 2017
Premiered: Houston Grand Opera, 2017
This heartwarming, family-friendly story, adapted from the enchanting 1972 TV-movieturned-novel, follows a precocious daughter who struggles to understand her father’s resentment about the holidays and longs for a beautiful Christmas tree like other families have, to “make her house look happy.” The central story of personal loss and eventual healing struck a chord with both Gordon and librettist Vavrek, as each has suffered the loss of family members and, in Gordon’s case, a partner. The final theme of rebirth is one of catharsis and joy, and the resulting opera was especially welcome in a city that had just experienced the devastation of Hurricane Harvey.
FORCES
Singers:
3 Sopranos, 2 Mezzo-Sopranos, 1 Tenor, 1 Baritone; Chorus: SAT (div.)
Orchestration:
1(dbl. Picc.)
1(dbl. E.H.)
2(2 dbl. B.Cl.)
1(dbl. Cbsn.)
2 1 1 0; 1Perc. Pno. Hp. Str. (3.1.1.1.1)
Project Statement
Royce grew up on a farm in Alberta, Canada. His dad committed suicide. Now, that doesn't happen in the book but the story still resonates with him because it’s about the embodiment of grief in the psyche and how it affects families," Gordon says. "Royce personalized the story in his own way. It's about how the father’s grief affects his relationship with his little girl, who is growing into a woman. She is an agonizing reminder of her mother’s death, and the death of Christmas for him. Christmas is about birth, but for the father, it’s about death. And the end of The House Without a Christmas Tree, it becomes about birth again: ‘My little girl isn’t who I thought she was.‘ That moment when she walks in and the father flips a switch and there is an exquisite tree in the living room, and the music goes up to a B-natural, it's just exquisitely beautiful. Just talking about it, I’m chilled.- Ricky Ian Gordon, Playbill, November 16, 2017
Reviews
. . .[a] soul-warming recipe of mittens, snowball fights, caroling, secret Santa gift exchanges, friends, family, and love. . .just the thing, really, to usher in cheer. . . [Vavrek’s] libretto is simple and straightforward. . .the unguarded style soars in Gordon’s arias. . . –Sydney Boyd, Houstonia Magazine
Gordon’s melodic, tonal score. . .fall[s] easily on the ears, often bringing to mind the late operas of Richard Strauss in its naturalistic setting of Vavrek’s dialogue. . .he pleasing score, congenial vocal demands and modest scale of “The House Without a Christmas Tree” give it a good shot at achieving staying power, attractive to professional opera companies of all sizes and to conservatories and universities. –Eric Skelly, The Houston Chronicle
MEDIA
Houston Grand Opera
2017
Photos by Lynn Lane
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