Q&A: 3 baritones at center of Opera's 'Silent Night'

On Christmas Eve in 1914, Scottish, German and French troops in the trenches on the Western Front laid down their arms for a cease-fire. Coming together in no-man's land, they sang carols, played football, shared provisions and family photos, held Mass and buried their dead.

The next day, the carnage began again.

This month, the world observes the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War. An estimated 9 million to 16 million died on the battlefields. Governments, societies and the world order were changed forever.

The true story of the Christmas truce, the inspiration for the 2005 French film "Joyeux Noël," was really a series of truces that occurred along the front in 1914.

Cincinnati Opera presents "Silent Night," a new opera by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell based on the film, Thursday and Saturday in Music Hall.

Because of the nature of war, it is an opera rich in male roles, especially for baritones. The Enquirer had a lively conversation with three of them: Craig Irvin, Gabriel Preisser and Andrew Wilkowske (a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music).

You were all in the world premiere at Minnesota Opera in 2011. Tell us about your characters.

Preisser: I play Lt. Gordon, the Scottish lieutenant who proposes the truce. I think he's the kind of person who's trying to do the right thing. He doesn't go into it wanting to fraternize, but his troops are exhausted and he's told they'll be home for Christmas. The Scottish, I assume, have no idea why they're fighting. It's not their war. Yet there they are. So when he sees these German soldiers singing Christmas carols, and the bagpipe player jumps up on the trench, he has no choice but to say we need to have a truce.

Irvin: I'm Lt. Horstmayer, the German, who has to deal with Sprink (a private who is an opera singer), who's questioning him all the time and going into no-man's land, where Horstmayer feels he'll be killed any moment.

Wilkowske: My character is Ponchel, the aide-de-camp of the French lieutenant. He's the comic relief. … In an opera that's about people getting killed all the time, it's nice to be the guy who gets to have a couple of jokes. He carries an alarm clock to remind him that he used to have coffee every day at that time with his mother.

Irvin: In the Muppet opera version, we decided he's Fozzie.

Preisser: In the "MASH" version, he's Radar O'Reilly.

What are the challenges of singing an opera with mostly male voices onstage?

Wilkowske: Part of the problem for Kevin Puts and the director, Eric Simonson, was to differentiate all the parts. You have a sea of characters, 10 different characters, all of them named, and how do you get the audience to know them? I think that was a challenge, to find a way to make them stand apart from the crowd.

Preisser: The biggest challenge was to keep us all quiet. It was like a frat party.

What are your favorite musical moments?

Wilkowske: I call it the "Barber" aria. Ponchel feels it's his duty to cheer up Lt. Audebert, who is dealing with the constant loss of men. I say, "Are you ready for your haircut? I'm the best barber in Lens." He says, "My father-in-law lives in Lens. Do you know him?" I say, "Oh yeah, he's the guy who wants nothing off the top, short on the sides." … It's a meaningful friendship in this sea of death.

Preisser: The Scots start off singing a folk song. What's cool about Kevin's music is all of it is original. He made it up himself. Even in the beginning, an opera scene, it sounds like a Mozart opera, but it's Kevin's interpretation.

Irvin: My favorite moment is toward the end, where we've said goodbye to each other and the truce is finished. Audebert says my French is very good, and I tell him my wife is French, from Marseille. It's just a beautiful moment. These guys would be drinking together in a bar if it wasn't for this.

Wilkowske: There is an a cappella aria that the soprano has, and everything stops onstage. Everyone is just sitting and listening. It's like she's an angel in a sea of destruction, singing a beautiful a cappella hymn.

Preisser: Supposedly soldiers, when they died, would not call out for their wives. They would call out for their mother. There's something maternal and angelic about that moment.

Is there a message to be taken away?

Wilkowske: When you've shared a drink or made friends with your enemy, how do you go back to killing him? When you've humanized the person you've been taught to demonize, you can't go back to killing them.

Preisser: It's a timeless piece. We're still surrounded by war, unfortunately. Despite the fact that we live in a turbulent, chaotic world, we can find humanity. That's what this piece is – finding brotherhood, remembering that we're all just trying to get through this life.

Irvin: The message I take away is that we are all alike more than we are different. In any battle fought throughout history, the person you're shooting at is more like you than different. If we stopped and realized that, it would be a better world.

If you go

• What: "Silent Night," opera by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell

• When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday

• Where: Music Hall, 1243 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine

• Tickets: Start at $25. 513-241-2742, www.cincinnatiopera.org