December Night:
“December Night” is based on a chapter from the Willa Cather novel “Death Comes for the Archbishop”. The opera tells of the encounter between a priest and a runaway slave. This one-act 70-minute drama takes place during the holiday season (Advent) and is suitable for any time of the year. It is designed for collegiate-level (and above) singers and instrumentalists and for a general audience.
December Night
Story:
The action takes place in Santa Fe, New Mexico on a December night, during Advent, shortly before Christmas. The era is in the 1850s and New Mexico is now a U.S. territory.
The opera opens with (then) Bishop Latour reading various contemplative texts, vainly seeking solace for a spiritual crisis brought on by the vicissitudes of his mission. Unsatisfied, he remembers the enthusiasm of the onset of that mission, embodied in the fur-lined cloaks given to him and Father Vaillent, his assisting priest at the outset. In a flashback duet – part memory, part inner-dialogue – he shares the excitement and conviction of that beginning with his Father Vaillent. He relives their first Christmas together and the fellowship and hope they had for their mission. But even this memory brings no peace and he decides to go to the chapel to pray.
Into the cold, snowy courtyard enters Sada, an old Mexican female slave of a protestant American family. Sada has stolen away in the night to pray in the church, but the door is locked. Father Latour finds her, frightened and cold, in the courtyard in front of the chapel. He comforts her as she recounts the vicious and mean treatment to which she is subjected by her owners. In a dramatized memory, she relives the confrontation between her cruel mistress and local Catholic women trying to help her.
Bishop Latour comforts Sada, wrapping her the fur-lined cloak. They enter the Lady Chapel to pray. The duet prayer centers around the Advent hymn, Alma Redemptoris, with both Sada and the Bishop breaking off to express their inner thoughts. Sada expresses the sadness of being denied the church for many years and her happiness of finally once again – perhaps for the last time – having that joy. The Bishop laments the poor old slave’s state and he expresses determination to free her and through that action, to free himself from his crisis. He understands his mission and purpose are to serve those like Sada, to whom the Cathedral truly is home and he only the servant of that house.
Sada prepares to go back to her masters and Bishop Latour tries to give her his cloak to keep warm in the stable where she sleeps. But, knowing she will be punished by her mistress for such an obvious gift, she accepts only a small icon which can be hidden. The Bishop blesses her and she departs, elated and hopeful. He gazes out at the winter desert sky, refreshed by the realization that this small kindness is as important as his great mission.
Characters:
Bishop Latour, Bishop of the new diocese of New Mexico … Lyric Baritone
Father Vaillent, fellow mission priest … Lyric Tenor
Sada, an old Mexican slave (of mestizo origins) … Lyric Mezzo-Soprano
Mrs. Smith, Sada’s owner and anti-Catholic American … Lyric Soprano
Chorus (2 part vocalese)
Duet from “December Night”
Orchestra:
There are three separate chamber music scorings for “December Night.” All three versions call for Native American flute and Zuni percussion. If the instruments are not available, standard orchestral instruments are appropriate.
Ensemble I
Native American Flute/Flute/Piccolo/Alto Flute
B-flat Clarinet/Bass Clarinet/Zuni shaker
1 Percussion – Vibraphone, Xylophone, Marimba, Croates, Glockenspiel, Church Bell
Piano
Organ (optional)
Violin
Viola
Cello
Ensemble II
Native American Flute/Flute/Piccolo/Alto Flute
2 Percussion – Vibraphone, Xylophone, Marimba, Croates, Glockenspiel, Church Bell, Zuni shaker
Piano
Organ
Ensemble III
Native American Flute/Flute/Piccolo/Alto Flute
Piano
Organ