On December 27, The Christmas Night Opera filled Carnegie Hall with an audience made of longtime opera enthusiasts, devoted fans, and first-time listeners drawn by the holiday program. Set inside the Stern Auditorium, the evening brought together world-renowned vocalists and the American Symphony Orchestra for a concert that felt both celebratory and focused, offering a year-end gathering rooted in tradition rather than spectacle.
The evening was presented as the beginning of a new tradition, articulated by organizer Eugene Wintour-Irverstag. The goal was not reinvention, but continuity: an annual moment where voices, orchestra, and audience meet on equal footing. That intention was evident from the outset. The hall filled early, conversations lowered, and the audience settled with the sense that this was an evening to be followed. Under the direction of Francesco Lanzillotta, the American Symphony Orchestra opened Act I with Rossini’s Guillaume Tell Overture, establishing a tone of clarity and momentum. Lanzillotta’s conducting favored structure over flourish, allowing the orchestra’s sound to expand naturally within Carnegie Hall’s acoustics rather than pressing for drama. The effect was expansive, setting the stage for a program built on contrast and excitement.
That contrast came quickly. Asmik Grigorian followed with “Song to the Moon” from Rusalka, her voice focused and inward, drawing the hall into a suspended quiet. Thomas Hampson brought gravity with Verdi’s “Pietà, rispetto, onore” from Macbeth, delivering the aria with restraint and authority rather than overt weight. Grigorian returned alongside Hampson for the Eugene Onegin duet, where Tchaikovsky’s lyric sweep unfolded with emotional precision.
Act I continued with Nadine Sierra, whose Verdi selection showcased her signature clarity and brightness, followed by a shift into Act II with Ambroise Thomas’ Mignon Overture, re-centering the orchestra before the program widened further. Sierra’s turn in Bernstein’s “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story introduced a moment of lift without breaking the evening’s cohesion. Her delivery remained poised rather than playful, maintaining continuity with the night’s overall tone. Grigorian returned with “In questa reggia” from Turandot, her voice cutting cleanly through the orchestra with focus and control, balancing power with dramatic intention.
The second half leaned into operatic intensity. Anita Monserrat delivered Rossini’s “Nacqui all’affanno… Non più mesta” from La Cenerentola with warmth and agility, offering a sense of release amid the program’s growing emotional weight. Brian Jagde followed with Verdi’s “Dio! mi potevi scagliar” from Otello, his tenor urgent and unguarded, carrying dramatic immediacy without overstatement.
Radvanovsky’s appearances anchored the evening’s final arc. Her Verdi selections from I vespri siciliani brought the night’s most expansive emotional range, shaped by long lines and deliberate pacing. When she later joined Jagde for the Manon Lescaut final duet, the pairing felt earned with voices meeting with tension and balance. The program closed with all soloists returning to the stage for Bernstein’s “Make Our Garden Grow” from Candide. Lined across the front of the stage beneath Carnegie Hall’s ornate ceiling stood Hampson, Monserrat, Sierra, Jagde, Grigorian, and Radvanovsky, their attire forming a subtle visual spectrum: black, red, silver, burgundy, pale green, and emerald. Behind them, Lanzillotta remained at the podium, the orchestra seated in quiet symmetry.
The applause that followed echoed throughout the auditorium, with a standing ovation from everyone. Christmas Night Opera offered a reminder that large-scale music, when trusted to speak for itself, can still bring a room into shared focus. As the audience filtered back into the cold, the sense lingered that this was not simply a concert to remember, but one New York may return to year after year!
