As Christmas 1914 approached, Benedict XV, who described the war as “the suicide of Europe,” pleaded for a Christmas truce. The military leaders refused, but somehow, at several points along the trenches, a surreal cease-fire broke out anyway.

That short, peaceful spell inspired the 2005 film “Joyeux Noel,” which focused on the experiences of some Scottish, French and German troops on a battlefield in Belgium. That film, in turn, inspired “Silent Night,” an opera by Kevin Puts, the Peabody Institute faculty member who received the Pulitzer Prize in music last year for this extraordinary work.

Opera Philadelphia is presenting the East Coast premiere of “Silent Night” at the Academy of Music in an impressive co-production with Minnesota Opera, which commissioned and unveiled the piece in November 2011. (The final performance is Sunday.)

Music history is not ...

Puts writes well for the voice and has the advantage of a text by Mark Campbell, the librettist of choice for several composers. Campbell writes with a naturalness and concision that keep the plot and characters clear, the pacing effective.

(The two men have been commissioned by Minnesota Opera for another work, this one based on the vintage thriller “The Manchurian Candidate.”)

Everything about that unlikely Christmas truce is fascinating. And, as was the case with the film version, the opera personalizes the event with telling glimpses into the lives that intersected on that gruesomely scarred countryside.

"Silent Night" grabs hold from the Prologue, which introduces the primary characters from each country at the moment when the war first touches their lives. As their nationalistic pride heats up, Puts creates a Charles Ives-worthy clash of harmonies to go with it.

In short order, those characters become multilayered and sympathetic. How they end up — death, defection, transfer to other hideous fronts (punishment from top brass for the fraternization) — hits home. There is much left in the snowy air as the final curtain falls.

Two key characters are stars of the German opera stage — tenor Nikolaus Sprink and his Danish lover, soprano Anna Sorensen. They both find themselves at the front that December 1914, he in uniform in the trenches, she to perform for the nearby German high command.

Anna uses her connections to join Sprink on Christmas Eve and becomes part of the unexpected suspension of hostilities. When she sings “Donna nobis pacem” after a multinational Mass, the effect is riveting. The whole amazing scene, with all of its impossible hope, becomes focused on a single, plaintive voice.

That is just one of the many highlights in a work that gains strength from several little vignettes — a letter-writing scene, an officer getting a haircut, a man clutching the corpse of his older brother. With each turn of the revolving stage, something fresh is learned about the people trapped in the war that couldn’t possibly end all wars.

The atmospheric set (Francis O’Connor) is complete with bunkers, the ruins of a church and a no man’s land where Sprink dares to tread, singing a song and inviting his foes to join him.

The sturdy cast, directed with a fine eye for subtle detail by Eric Simonson, includes a stirring performance by William Burden as Sprink. The tenor is especially affecting during his eloquent expression of despair about the war, sung against a long-sustained note in the orchestra.

Kelly Kaduce does a vibrant job as Anna. A more tender tone would be welcome in some of the high-reaching melodic lines, but the soprano’s phrasing is emotionally telling throughout. Also on the German side, Craig Irvin gives a compelling performance as Horstmayer, the Jewish officer determined to serve the Fatherland.

Liam Bonner’s mellow baritone and nuanced acting flesh out the French officer Audebert, who has one of the opera’s finest moments — as the lieutenant writes up the casualty list, a litany interspersed with thoughts about his wife, the vocal line spins gently over a haunting accompaniment of harp and strings.

Andrew Wilkowske shines as Audebert’s droll aide, Ponchel. On the Scottish side, Zach Borichevsky sings stirringly as Jonathan Dale, a young soldier who cannot stomach this strange truce. Troy Cook is an urgent presence as the Scottish chaplain.

Michael Christie conducts the score with great sensitivity and draws beautifully detailed playing form the Opera Philadelphia orchestra.

“Silent Night” should be staged in Baltimore. How about a collaboration between Lyric Opera Baltimore and Peabody Opera in 2014, the centennial of the war and the Christmas truce? It would make an uplifting challenge for both organizations, and a fitting way to honor an extraordinary composer teaching in our midst.

PHOTOS BY KELLY & MASSA

As a person, Wagner was deplorable — vain, arrogant, manipulative, viciously and relentlessly anti-Semitic. As an artist, he reached the highest peaks. His importance to the evolution of Western music cannot be overstated; the fusion of intellectual brilliance and emotional power that propels his works cannot be overvalued.

The best way to appreciate this achievement is in an opera house enjoying a full staging of a Wagner music drama, but that opportunity is not going to arise in Baltimore any time soon. The BSO is offering the next best thing — a complete act from “Die Walkure” in concert form, with three excellent singers.

As a warm-up, there are samplings from “Tristan und Isolde” and “Die Meistersinger.” And warm was the word on Friday.

Conductor Marin Alsop emphasized the grandeur and humanity of the “Meistersinger” Prelude in equal measure. There was propulsion, but not haste, in her approach, and that helped the ingenious counterpoint in the score to shine through. The ensemble sounded sure and robust.

The BSO’s previous performances of the Prelude and “Liebestod” from “Tristan” over the past decade have been orchestra-only. This time, there was a soprano in the house to do the honors in the “Liebestod” — the opera’s soul-stirring conclusion, when Isolde, having lost her beloved Tristan, essentially dies of love.

As in previous performances of the Prelude I’ve heard her conduct, Alsop ...

Alsop was also leading a full act from a Wagner opera for the first time. What she achieved here suggests that she should consider doing more.

It is possible to extract more detail and nuance from Act 1 of “Walkure,” the second of the four works that make up Wagner’s towering “Ring of the Nibelung.” But Alsop kept singers and orchestra on the same tight wavelength as she shaped this hour-long scene, maintaining a strong inner pulse that still allowed room for breadth.

This act introduces three pivotal characters of the “Ring” — the heroic Siegmund who seeks refuge in a house that turns to be that of his long lost twin sister (soon-to-be lover) Sieglinde and her unpleasant husband, Hunding.

Brandon Jovanovich, as Siegmund, revealed a bright, warm tenor and an eloquent manner of phrasing. His top notes could have used a little more weight and stamina, but this was impressive Wagnerian singing just the same.

Melton blossomed as Sieglinde. Her vibrant, focused tone and attentiveness to text yielded a beautifully nuanced portrayal. She and Javonovich produced terrific intensity in the exultant closing minutes.

As Hunding, Eric Owens towered over everyone else onstage and unleashed a deeply resonant voice to match. His superb diction gave each word menacing impact.

Except for a wince-inducing slip or two in the brass section, the BSO delivered the goods handsomely, right from the dark, galloping music that opens the act. Principal cellist Dariusz Skoraczewski — the whole cello section, for that matter — made particularly subtle contributions in the score’s most tender passages.

The gradually diminishing coughs during the performance and the rousing ovation afterward made it clear that there is an audience eager here for Wagner. How about the complete Act 2 of “Tristan” next?

The concert will be repeated at 8 p.m. Saturday at Strathmore, 3 p.m. Sunday at Meyerhoff.

PHOTO OF HEIDI MELTON BY KRISTIN HOEBERMANN

"Shakespeare's R&J" examines the star-crossed lovers of Verona through the unexpected prism of a repressive, all-male Catholic boarding school. This brilliant and provocative work, created by Joe Calarco, first appeared in the late 1990s and has been widely performed since.

Calarco recently revised the piece, and that new version is receiving its North American premiere in a bracing, in-the-round production that he has directed with considerable flair.

The piece is wonderfully minimalist -- just four actors (the characters are unnamed), no set or costumes (save for preppy school uniforms), hardly any props (a long red cloth gets versatile use). The attention here is all on text and subtext.

The students are ...

And what of the love story? Sure, boys played the female roles in Shakespeare's time, but that's not what this version is about; there is no imitation of a girlish voice or physical mannerism for Juliet.

Here, the dangerous situation Romeo and Juliet are in, defying the rules of their strictly demarcated society, is reinforced by the sight of two young men embracing those roles. The distinctions between play-acting and reality blur just enough to shake up everything.

Calarco neither pushes nor avoids homo-eroticism as the work proceeds. He merely puts an extra current in the air, adding one more dimension to a familiar tale of forbidden love that unfolds in an environment where that tale itself is forbidden.

As the students reach the end of their Shakespearean escape (references to "A Midsummer Night's" and the sonnets also pass tellingly through the piece) and prepare to return to the conformist, faceless grind, the Romeo hesitates. He is not ready to break the bond formed with his Juliet.

It's a brief, exceptionally poignant moment. On one level, it speaks to the issue of teens struggling with same-sex attraction, of course, but it's more about how all parting -- of friends, lovers, expectations, dreams -- is such (bitter)sweet sorrow.

Calareco gets admirable, finely polished work from the cast. Alex Mills leaps into the Romeo role with a disarming naturalness, matched by Jefferson Farber's vibrant take on Juliet. Rex Daugherty does colorful, nuanced work throughout, especially when portraying the Nurse. Joel David Santner completes the quartet in dynamic form.

Between them, scenic designer James Kronzer and lighting designer Chris Lee create visual magic at key moments, adding exquisitely expressive layers to the proceedings.

Matt Rowe's sound design plays a valuable role, too. But the most compelling sound -- other than the potent delivery of Shakespeare's language -- comes each time the students stop suddenly to gasp loudly for air, as if preparing to dive into deep, scary water.

"Shakespeare's R&J" rungs through March 3. 

PHOTOS BY TERESA WOOD

It’s partly a traditional musical, with at least the thread of a plot — a woman who welds by day but would rather dance — and new songs that advance the storyline, more or less.

It’s partly a jukebox musical, with emphasis on the vintage songs that helped make the film so popular.

It also wants to be just a big old dance celebration, with kinetic routines breaking out at the drop of a cliche.

As the show bumps and grinds across the stage, it seems, above all, to have been created for those with short attention spans. Things never settle down long enough to allow for such silly little things as character development or dramatic tension.

You would think that with such a strong, recent example of how a need-to-dance movie can make a good stage musical — see “Billy Elliot” — someone might have wanted to give “Flashdance” a few layers thicker than the loose sweatshirt the lead character wears.

The flimsy premise of this tale could use some filling out and suspense — anything to pump up the journey made by Alex, the mill worker with the hankering for ballet lessons.

“Flashdance,” with a book by Tom Hedley and Robert Cary, is content to stay on the same superficial level of the original source material.

This would have been a good time to try out some fresh dialogue, for a start.

And lyrics? Oh, my. Alfred Tennyson must be chuckling in his grave at this howler: “It’s better to leap and fall than never leap at all.” (Robert Roth wrote the music and shares credit for the lyrics with Robert Cary.)

I wonder if a campier course might have been more fun, given how brilliant, in its own crazy way, the stage adaptation of another dance-filled movie, "Xanadu," turned out. Oh well.

"Flashdance," expertly directed and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, may rely too much on nostalgia. The expected scenes from the film are recreated, though in a curiously dutiful fashion.

When the lithe and spirited Emily Padgett, who stars as Alex, removes a bra without lifting her sweat shirt, or gyrates while being doused with water, just like Jennifer Beals did in the film, it feels like she is merely following a to-do list.

There’s nothing remotely sexy about that bra business — Matthew Hydzik, as Alex’s boss-turned-boyfriend, Nick, looks like he’s watching the nightly news.

And the water number, used to bring down the Act 1 curtain, certainly looks fabulous (Klara Zieglerova’s scenic design and Howell Binkley’s lighting deliver plenty of sizzle throughout the production), but the whole thing is over in a splash. It feels tacked on, just a sop to the fans of the movie.

Superficiality does have its place in the theater world, of course, and there’s a certain guilty-pleasure element about this glossy vehicle, which tries so hard to entertain. (I still wouldn’t count too heavily on the show’s success if it ever makes it to Broadway — the Baltimore visit is part of a pre-New York national tour.)

In addition to the fluent stagecraft, the level of performing is high. Padgett manages to look fresh at the end of the two and a half hour musical, despite one frenetic dance after another (the choreography devised for her could use a bit more of the aesthetic and bit less of the athletic). She sings sturdily as well. If she can’t quite give Alex depth, she manages to give her some personality.

Hydzik glides smoothly through the role of Nick and, especially in the calmer numbers, proves to be a confident, stylish singer. He’s especially effective blending with Padgett in “Here and Now,” one of the more appealing songs in the score.

Not content to focus on one character’s journey toward artistic fulfillment, the show spends a little too much time with others. There’s Alex’s dancing buddy Gloria (a perky Kelly Felthous), who ends up in a sleazy club. And Gloria’s boyfriend, Jimmy (David R. Gordon), whose boy-meets-dream, boy-loses-dream, boy-gets-song progression proves only mildly diverting.

JoAnn Cunningham, as Alex’s wise old muse, Hannah, makes a valiant effort to give the character some depth, but she isn’t helped by the writers.

Supporting players make a considerable effort to spice things up. The ensemble of dancers/singers moves through its paces in polished form. But they would be better served by a few really grand production numbers, rather than an assortment of brief routines that often don’t have enough time to get off the ground.

On the plus side, “Flashdance” does deliver in the closing moments, when Alex finally gets her audition for the stuffy academy and the strains of “What a Felling” start to fill the house. There really is bit of a thrill at that point, but it’s just a little late.

The production runs through Sunday.

Photo by Kyle Froman

I started at Towson Unitarian Universalist Church, where the Music in the Great Hall series presented the Trio Cloisonne -- flutist Marcia Kamper, violist Karin Brown, harpist Sarah Fuller -- in a colorful program.

Debussy is generally credited with generating interest in this combination of instruments; his Sonata was featured on the second half of the concert, by which point I had moved down the road to another performance.

What I did get to hear was quite rewarding, especially Toru Takemitsu's "And Then I Knew 'Twas Wind." The title comes from an Emily Dickinson poem ("Like Rain it sounded till it curved/ And then I knew 'twas wind ..."); the music comes from a magical place where French and Japanese harmonic idioms seem to converge.

The players, all affiliated with the Baltimore Symphony, articulated the atmospheric score with ...

The Trio by Harold Genzmer, a work full of charm, where flirtations with dissonance are invariably resolved peacefully in the final chord, a la Hindemith. The concluding folk song variations -- the wry coda is especially fun -- found the players in vivid form.

I made a dash for it at intermission to Kraushaar Auditorium for the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra's concert, which was in progress when I arrived.

The portion of the Mozart Divertimento I caught found the ensemble's fine string section maintaining a cohesive tone and phrasing with a good deal of nuance. On the podium, Markand Thakar demonstrated the art of the unobtrusive conductor -- minimal gestures, maximum expression.

Things were likewise polished and vivid at the program's close in the deliciously neo-baroque Concerto Grosso No. 1 by Bloch. Thakar had the ingenious music percolating nicely and drew finely detailed efforts from the orchestra and the various soloists within.

The rest of the program showcased guest artist Katherine Needleman, whose work as principal oboe of the BSO has long been admired.

She soared through Bach's A major Concerto for oboe d'amore as if on one breath, sculpting the melodic lines with great flair. The strings, led by the concertmaster, backed the soloist sensitively; the gently rocking second movement emerged with particular warmth.

Needleman was even more impressive in Vaughan Williams' Oboe Concerto. The piece, much of it in the composer's "Lark Ascending" mode, inspired exquisite, mellow-toned phrasing from the soloist, while Thakar and the ensemble provided stylish partnering.

Instead of Feb. 17, the new closing date will be Feb. 24.

There are many reasons to catch this show, starting with the brilliant play that Tracy Letts wrote. In peeling away layer after layer of a heavily troubled Oklahoma family, Letts uncovers unsettling things about all of us.

Those uncanny insights into human behavior, not to mention a wonderful streak of humor, earned Letts a Pulitzer and Tony Award for "August."

Everyman's staging -- the Baltimore premiere of the 2007 work -- features an excellent cast headed by the wonderful Linda Thorson in her company debut as the messed-up matriarch.

There are extraordinary efforts as well from Nancy Robinette (another company debut) and such Everyman veterans as Deborah Hazlett and Wil Love, to mention just a few.

The all-out ensemble effort reaffirms Everyman's quality and value to Baltimore's theater scene, while the handsome staging shows off the company's new venue to great advantage. 

PHOTO OF LINDA THORSON BY STAN BAROUH

On that occasion, Lintu led the ensemble in the most famous piece of classical music from his homeland, Sibelius’ “Finlandia.” For his return this week, the conductor is offering the second most famous — Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2.

From the first measures of that symphony Thursday night at the Music Center at Strathmore, Lintu signaled that his would be a brisk and bracing account.

Some conductors, at least non-Finn ones, take heaps of time to let this earth-colored, yearning-filled music sink in (think Leonard Bernstein). They may be off-base, but they can't help but conjure up dark forests and, of course, the forbidding peaks of mighty fiords.

Lintu let the sun seep continually into the score. There was a fresh breeze, too, behind his scherzo-like tempo for the first movement, not to mention his whirlwind pace for the actual scherzo later on.

The conductor hardly stinted on the symphony’s intense drama, though. The unsettled and unsettling second movement, for example, emerged with particularly effective tension.

Lintu kept the finale moving along. He still gave the grand, anthem-like theme its expressive due, even if, like Veda in “Mildred Pierce,” the conductor seemed to be saying, “But let’s not get sticky over it.”

Throughout the symphony, he called for telling nuances from the musicians, especially ...

There were colorful contributions from the woodwinds as well. And Katherine Needleman delivered the third movement oboe solo with her usual sensitivity.

Other strong examples of musical romanticism filled out the program.

Tchaikovsky’s stormy “Francesca da Rimini” received a taut account at the top of the evening, with Lintu stressing momentum and structural cohesion.

A sense of abandon would have been welcome during the final moments, and maybe one more notch of explosive power here and there, but this was still an impressive take on the score, and the orchestra was in superb form. Steven Barta’s clarinet glowed eloquently.

Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2, one of the composer’s most inventive creations, provided — at least in this context — a lighter mood. Which is not to say less consequential.

Having the brilliant English pianist Stephen Hough as soloist guaranteed an absorbing performance. His playing was not just precise and pristine, but full of telling detail as he dug into the ingenious thematic metamorphosis that makes the concerto such a gem.

Lintu was a supple collaborator. Other than some questionable intonation at the start, the orchestra was again in fine form. Dariusz Skoraczewski delivered the cello solo tenderly.

The concert will be repeated at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Meyerhoff.

PHOTO BY HEIKKI TUULI

The early music/period instrument group has an annual tradition of presenting a wintry program scheduled around or, as it turned out this time, exactly on the day of the biggest football game of the year.

Billed as SuperBach Sunday, the concert typically has a unifying theme. This one, which drew a good-sized audience to Towson University's Center for the Arts, found a particularly interesting hook.

It centered on the court of Frederick the Great and featured one of Bach's monumental exercises in contrapuntal ingenuity, "The Musical Offering," based on a slithery theme supposedly devised by the king himself.

Hard to believe that the revered monarch who could come up with such a harmonically challenging melodic line was the same guy who wrote the mundane march played on the first half of Sunday's concert. I guess even supreme rulers have their off days.

Still, it was fun hearing that ditty and the more substantive and elegant Flute Sonata No. 9, not to mention the fine Flute Quartet No. 1 by Quantz, one of Frederick's favored composers.

The Quantz work, in particular, inspired ...

It's a long, complex work made up of more than as dozen individual components, so Whear sensibly provided introductory remarks to each, accompanied by quick demonstrations of things to listen out for. I often lose patience with chitchat during concerts, but Whear kept his remarks brief, enlightening and spiced with a wit drier than the driest vermouth.

A few frayed edges aside, the playing was quite nimble and expressive, with many a telling detail, such as Nichols' downright sensual phrasing at the start of the "Canon a 4."

She, Stefanovic, Whear and Shin did shining work in the darkly beautiful Trio Sonata that, as Whear pointed out, demonstrated that Bach could write as well for the heart as for the mind, all the while extracting still more mileage out of the royal theme.

And all six musicians rose to the challenge of the concluding Ricercar, tapping into the score's almost spiritual immersion into the intricacies of fugal thought.

BSO vice president of education Carol Bogash calls the project "the final piece in the BSO’s educational framework" and cites a McMaster University study indicating that "early musical training benefits children even before they can walk or talk."

The Music Box Series will feature actress, dancer, storyteller and Baltimore School for the Arts instructor Maria Broom (pictured) as host of the 30-minute programs, which will be held Saturday mornings in the lobby of Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

The concerts are designed to promote "musical, motor and language development through bouncing, clapping, listening, singing and other hands-on activities," according to the BSO's press release. There will be pre-concert activities as well.

The lineup:

-- "Birdie Melodies" April 13 (Mozart, Beethoven; emphasis on flute, violin, viola and cello)

-- "Great Big Animals" May 4 (Handel, Brahms, brass quintet)

-- "Life in the Water" (Schubert's "Trout" Quintet, et al.)

For ticket info, call 410-783-8000 or check out the BSO's Web site.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARIABROOM.COM