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| Barihunk Ben Wager and a scene from Silent Night |
Last November, we posted about Kevin Puts' new opera "Silent Night," which was being premiered at the Minnesota Opera. We were all atwitter, because not only did it seem like an amazing new American opera, but it featured a cast with more sexy men than a college water polo team. The cast included Gabriel Preisser, Liam Bonner, Mike Nyby, Andrew Wilkowske and Ben Wager and was named as our "Best Barihunk Feast of 2011" in our year-end wrap up.
Apparently, some other pretty impressive musical minds agreed that the opera was worthy of recognition, as the Pulitzer Prize for "Distinguished Musical Composition by an
American" was awarded to composer Kevin Puts for "Silent Night." The opera was commissioned and premiered by the Minnesota Opera in Minneapolis
on November 12, 2011, a company that we have long praised for its heartfelt commitment to premiering new works, especially those by American composers. We would like to add ourselves to the chorus of congratulatory messages from the music world.
The opera. with a libretto by Mark Campbell, recounts the true story of a
spontaneous cease-fire among Scottish, French and Germans during World
War I, displaying versatility of style and cutting straight to the
heart. The story was based on the 2005 film "Joyeux Noël."
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| Composer Kevin Puts |
Also nominated as finalists in this category were Tod Machover
for "Death and the Powers," premiered by the Boston Modern Opera
Project in Massachusetts on March 18, 2011
and Andrew Norman for “The Companion Guide to Rome,” premiered
on November 13, 2011 in Salt Lake City.
CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com
Don't forget Troy Cook is also in Silent Night!
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