Concert sings of peace on Earth during World War I Christmas truce

From Dec 7 (In-Forum, Fargo-Moorehead): Concert sings of peace on Earth during World War I Christmas truce
MOORHEAD – When the vocal group Cantus steps on stage tonight at the Hansen Theatre at Minnesota State University Moorhead, it will deliver a history lesson as much as a concert.

The Minneapolis-based group, with members of Theatre Latté Da, present “All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914.” As the title indicates, the piece of musical theater tells of a holiday cease-fire between British, French and German troops during the first year of World War I.

The historical event is often overlooked and seemed to be out of public consciousness until depicted in the French movie, “Joyeux Noël” in 2005. And now it might be in vogue; in November the Minnesota Opera premiered its own re-telling, “Silent Night.”

“I think it is great this story is being told in as many ways as it is,” says Cantus baritone Matthew Tintes. “I wasn’t aware of this story until I joined Cantus (in 2009).”

News of the truce was kept from the media due to national leaders fearing the public would cool on the war effort if they saw opposing forces being friendly.

But accounts in soldiers’ journals and letters home give the script much of its narrative and dialogue.

As stories go, troopers in trenches along the Western Front started singing holiday tunes on Christmas Eve. The other side responded from opposing trenches with their own song and relations warmed to the point of an unofficial truce called until the end of Christmas Day. In some parts along the battle line, the cease-fire lasted a week.

“The story of the truce is almost unbelievable that it could’ve happened, that the power of song could bring together opposing armies to call a truce for the holiday,” says Tintes, who graduated from West Fargo High School in 1998.

The members of Cantus play English, French and German soldiers in their production, singing in the different languages. The show opens with troops marching off to war singing their national anthems. As the war drags on longer than expected, the tone shifts down until the Christmas events supply a ray of hope.

“What makes the production so powerful are the voices of the men of Cantus, their harmonies laden with layers of complex and conflicted tones, expressing combinations of fear and joy, relief and sadness,” a St. Paul Pioneer Press review of the show said. “The bawdy drinking songs of the English are interrupted by the Germans’ soft and lovely ‘O Tannenbaum,’ and, in the drama’s turning point, the solo rendition of ‘Stille Nacht’ that proves an act of radical compassion.”

Tintes says there might be more interest in the story of the Christmas truce since America has been at war now for a decade. He says veterans from the wars in Korea to Afghanistan approach him after productions to express how moving the show is.

“To know that at least in some point in our recent history, even the soldiers on the ground were able to put aside their differences and have a merry Christmas, that gives people hope that maybe one of these days we won’t be hearing about war as much anymore,” he says.