The world-premiere cast features Jennifer Rivera, Jonathan Blalock, Matt Boehler, and Kevin Burdette. Directed by Paul Curran and conducted by Dallas Opera's music director Emmanuel Villaume, performances are at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas on December 4, 6, 9, and 12.
The opera's finale includes the shimmer of 48 handbells ringing throughout the theater.
Adamo writes:
Becoming Santa Claus casts its title character as an elfin version of the kind of struggling American child who may have been taught to confuse a parent's presence with the shiny gifts he brings; and imagines both how Claus became that child and how he grew into the angel of generosity (we'd like to believe) he is today.More:
In this original story, Claus is a prince of an Elven realm, son of a conflicted Queen sorceress and a King vanished under mysterious circumstances. No one expects Claus's father at the boy's glittering 13th birthday, but his uncles (the Three Kings of Christmas legend) are hoped for; when, called to the crib of a mysterious Child, they send, instead, regrets and gifts. The stung Claus recruits his quartet of hapless Elves to make the most spectacular toys ever created to dazzle the Child and exact a rejected nephew's revenge. It doesn't quite turn out that way…
- The Dallas Opera
- Downloadable leaflet
