Season Sponsor Media Partner 2020 FALL SEASON December 13, 2020 at 7pm 1 PROGRAM Live from the Ordway Concert Hall December 13, 2020 at 7pm Estimated running time is 75 minutes including a 5 minute intermission. Liv Redpath, soprano Zoie Reams, mezzo-soprano Daniel Montenegro, tenor Thomas Glass, baritone Joseph Li, Arranger / Pianist Emily Bishai, Stage Director “Linus and Lucy” ........................................... Music by Vince Guaraldi “Christmas Time is Here” ....Music and lyrics by Lee Mendelson and Vince Guaraldi Daniel Montenegro “White Christmas” .................................. Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin As performed by The Drifters “Little Girl Blue”. Music by Richard Rodgers Zoie Reams Lyrics by Lorenz Hart “Snow Day” ....................................Music and lyrics by Jeremy Messersmith “Twelve Days of Christmas” .........................................Traditional “Por el valle de rosas” ....................Music and lyrics by Miguel Bernal Jiménez Daniel Montenegro Through the valley of roses Sleep my Jesus Of your cheeks Sleep in my arms Run two little streams And don’t cry, don’t cry Of tears For my sins Let me try, let me Fall asleep, sleep Let me try, let me Fall asleep, sleep Quench their thirst And even if you feel me cry That so torments me. Don’t wake up ... Translation by Daniel Montenegro 2 PROGRAM “Text Me Merry Christmas” ..........................Music by Adam Schlesinger Lyrics by David Javerbaum “Man of the Hour” ..................................Music and lyrics by Norah Jones Liv Redpath “A Five Pound Box of Money” ...................Music and lyrics by Pearl Bailey Thomas Glass “Peace” ................................................ Music and lyrics by Horace Silver Liv Redpath “Snow” .................................................. Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin 5 MINUTE INTERMISSION “Santa Baby” .....................................................Music and lyrics by Zoie Reams Joan Ellen Javits and Philip Springer Daniel Montenegro Thomas Glass “Wintery Sun” from The Christmas Spider ............................. Music by Clint Borzoni Lyrics by John de los Santos “Who Would Imagine A King” .............. Music and lyrics by Mervyn Warren Zoie Reams and Hallerin Hilton Hill “A Christmas Carol” .................................Music and lyrics by Tom Lehrer Thomas Glass “Light One Candle” ................................Music and lyrics by Peter Yarrow “River” ..................................................Music and lyrics by Joni Mitchell Liv Redpath “Stille Nacht” ............................................Music by Franz Xaver Gruber Lyrics by Joseph Mohr 3 PROGRAM “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” ..............................Music by Walter Kent Thomas Glass Lyrics by Kim Gannon “The Twelve Days After Christmas” .......Music and lyrics by Frederick Silver “Christmas in Minneapolis” ............................. Music by Eric Blomquist Lyrics by Chris Hooks (The Tribe and Big Cats) Minnesota Opera is honored to feature singers who are alumni of Project Opera and the Resident Artist Program. These artists boast impressive international careers and perform at the highest level in opera houses and concert halls around the world. Project Opera and the Resident Artist Program foster creative development and prepare young and emerging stars for a lifelong career in the field. We are immensely proud of all Project Opera participants and Resident Artists, past and present, who draw our world closer together to share their creative gifts and celebrate our common humanity. 4 ARTISTS AND CREATIVE TEAM Artists and Creative Team EMILY BISHAI Resident Artist 2020–2021 Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland Minnesota Opera Debut: Opera in the Outfield, 2020 Notable Engagements: The Marriage of Figaro, Welsh National Opera Don Giovanni, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden The Soldier’s Tale, RWCMD REPCo/USW Dance The Four Note Opera, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama Albert Herring, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama THOMAS GLASS Resident Artist 2016–2017 Hometown: Edina, Minnesota Minnesota Opera Debut: Roméo et Juliette, 2016 Notable Engagements: La Cenerentola, Atlanta Opera Riders of the Purple Sage, Arizona Opera La bohème, Houston Grand Opera Florencia en el Amazonas, Houston Grand Opera Il barbiere di Siviglia, Houston Grand Opera La bohème, Des Moines Metro Opera JOSEPH LI Hometown: Seattle, Washington Minnesota Opera Debut: A Holiday Special—Live!, 2020 Notable Engagements: Fall of the House of Usher (Conductor), Wolf Trap Opera Tain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do - Songs of Gay Harlem (Pianist), New York Festival of Song Studio Spotlight (Conductor), Wolf Trap Opera Trouble in Tahiti (Conductor), Baylor Opera Theater The Seven Deadly Sins (Conductor), Wolf Trap Opera W.C. Handy & The Birth of the Blues (Pianist), New York Festival of Song Studio Artist Alumnus, Houston Grand Opera 5 ARTISTS AND CREATIVE TEAM DANIEL MONTENEGRO Resident Artist 2002–2003 Hometown: Santa Ana, California Minnesota Opera Debut: Der fliegende Holländer,2003 Notable Engagements: Roméo et Juliette, San Francisco Opera La traviata, Arizona Opera Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, Houston Grand Opera Florencia en el Amazonas, San Diego Opera L’elisir d’amore, Washington National Opera Il postino, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris ZOIE REAMS Project Opera 2009–2010 Hometown: Chicago, Illinois Minnesota Opera Debut: Roberto Devereux, 2010 Notable Engagements: Rigoletto, Houston Grand Opera Everest, Chicago Opera Theater Freedom Ride, Chicago Opera Theater La traviata, Lyric Opera of Chicago Carmen, Opéra Louisiane Wozzeck, Des Moines Metro Opera LIV REDPATH Project Opera 2004–2010 Hometown: Edina, Minnesota Minnesota Opera Debut: A Holiday Special—Live!, 2020 Notable Engagements: Les Huguenots, Deutsche Oper Berlin Der Rosenkavalier (cover), Metropolitan Opera Ariadne auf Naxos, Santa Fe Opera and Cincinnati Opera Hansel and Gretel, Los Angeles Opera Thaïs, Toronto Symphony Orchestra Mahler Symphony #4, Los Angeles Philharmonic L’enfant et les sortilèges, Pacific Symphony VIDEO PRODUCER ROBOTIC CAMERA OPERATOR Matt Thueson Rebecca Beam VIDEO DIRECTOR STAGE MANAGEMENT Joshua Wyatt Jerry K. Smith, Jamie K. Fuller 6 PROGRAM NOTES Program Notes From Joseph Li Let’s start by addressing the my generation first heard it: and closing the song as one elephant wearing the Santa watching the movie Home does a tender hymn—that’s hat in the room: how do we Alone. I still get the giggles an emotional space that only celebrate this holiday season in from thinking about this song music can create. a COVID-ravaged world? playing while Macaulay Culkin’s Situated between the irreverent “Kevin” is putting on aftershave, I don’t even know how to mirth of “12 Days of Christmas” yowling from the heat, and answer that question for myself. and “Text Me Merry Christmas” meanwhile his brother’s we offer you“Por el valle de I do know that COVID cannot recently freed tarantula crawls rosas”, sung by the eloquent squash the essence of the across the bathroom floor. traditions surrounding this Daniel Montenegro. For our holiday season. Christmas, “Little Girl Blue” is one of Christian family, Christmas Hanukkah, Diwali, and Kwanzaa many tributes on this program is a season of birth and are, in fact, celebrations: to those among us who will the incarnate promise of celebrations of each other find themselves spending the redemption and renewal, and in the now, celebrations of holidays alone. It proved to Miguel Bernal Jiménez brings gratitude for those that came be the hit song from Rodgers to musical life a perfect picture before, and celebrations of and Hart’s musical Jumbo—it of humanity’s power to love in hope for those to come, among has been since performed by the face of adversity—of Mary many other things. the likes of Janis Joplin, Ella cradling a crying Jesus in her Fitzgerald, and Nina Simone— arms, rocking him to sleep even In that spirit of celebration, whose version you’ll hear as she knows Herod’s men we offer you this program of performed by the inimitable pursue them mercilessly. holiday music that is near and Zoie Reams. dear to so many of us. May My friend and cabaret partner How Nina Simone connected it provide even the slimmest in crime Kelli Estes introduced the dots of hope-starved glimmer of joy, mirth, and hope me to Straight No Chaser’s melancholy between “Good for you in the shadow of this “Text Me Merry Christmas” King Wenceslas” and “Little present darkness. several years ago for one of Girl Blue” I don’t know. I do our holiday cabaret shows in What better way to start off a know that marrying jazz with celebration than with A Charlie Houston, Texas. It pokes some her classical tradition roots was Brown Christmas? I would fun at how married we are one of her trademark practices, argue that Vince Guaraldi and to our phone screens, and its but I have never heard that his trio created a soundscape light fun is especially timely carol played in such a way, of childlike wonder, hilarity, and considering how so many of us and I can’t help but think of anticipation in a way no group will be apart from loved ones this song any time I hear the has since. this season. carol through the holidays. The The first time I heard The way she takes her time at the The holiday season can be Drifters’ “White Christmas” end, pleading for someone to especially difficult on single was probably how many in send “a tender little blue boy” folks, and this particular season 7 PROGRAM NOTES will prove harder than most. For all its naughty and Mass