★★★☆☆
If a Pulitzer prize and a string of American stagings means anything, Kevin Puts’s 2011 opera Silent Night should be a winner. And so it is, up to a point. Loosely recounting the 1914 Christmas truce, it has the scope of a movie blockbuster (and indeed is based on a French film) and a cast that sings in three languages to represent the Scottish, German and French troops involved. And it’s all wrapped up in music that is nothing if not atmospheric and listener-friendly. In fact, from the opening Mozart imitation onwards, quite a lot of it is pastiche. And even the parts that don’t deliberately hark back sound as if Stravinsky and Berg have been reincarnated for the occasion.
However, those who like