These five life-sized puppets will take center stage Sunday, Dec. 15, during the Wartburg Community Symphony’s holiday concert. From left the puppets represent Amahl’s mother, King Balthazar, Amahl, King Kaspar and King Melchior.
The 3 p.m. concert in Neumann Auditorium will be followed by a reception, and all visitors are welcome to visit the college’s Festival of Trees, located in the Classroom Technology Center, just down the hall from the Neumann Auditorium lobby. The symphony, under the direction of Sam Stapleton, will begin the concert with three holiday favorites: “Sleigh Ride,” “Troika” from the “Lieutenant Kije Suite” and “Christmas Festival.”
After the intermission, the symphony will take up the Gian Carlo Menotti opera that tells the story of Amahl, a disabled child with a penchant for tall tales, and his encounter with the three kings as they make their way to meet baby Jesus.
“The overarching theme, for me, is that sometimes in pursuit of who we think is Christ, we miss seeing Christ in the people around us,” said Brian Pfaltzgraff, chair of the Department of Music.
The puppets, which range from the size of a small child to about seven feet tall, were commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II and created by the Little Angel Puppet Theatre in London in 1967. In 2008, the 23 puppets were acquired by St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn. Pfaltzgraff was introduced to them in November when he and three Wartburg students were asked to join the Lourdes High School choir for a three-night performance of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” in Rochester.
“At the end of that run, I was commenting that we had a couple of performances coming up and lamenting that we couldn’t do a full-blown production because we don’t have the time with the symphony,” Pfaltzgraff said. “Brother (Paul-Vincent) Niebauer said ‘Why don’t you use our puppets?’”
He took the idea back to the Wartburg Community Symphony Board, which jumped at the opportunity.
Each puppet takes at least two puppeteers to operate. The first holds the puppet — some weigh up to 25 pounds — while the second manipulates the arms. A combination of community members and Wartburg students, many of whom will perform in a live-action version of the opera in January, will operate the puppets.
“They look fantastic and completely unexpected and, in some cases, completely bizarre,” Pfaltzgraff said. “There will be a visual element that will be attractive for youngsters, and much of the music is known by a lot of people. I grew up thinking that I was the only kid on the planet whose parents were odd or square enough to listen to a show like this.”
Tickets are $17 for adults and $7 for K-12 youth. Admission is free for children under 5 and Wartburg College students with a student ID.