‘Tis the season to hear opera stars bellow out Yuletide melodies in oddly accented English. Beyond issues of pronunciation, opera often translates to overblown vocalising which clashes with the essence of Christmas carols. Many of these songs originally derived from carols sung by ordinary people on the streets of medieval towns. Christmas is a time for the message to take centre stage in a carol, not for the diva or divo.
It would be Scrooge-like to name the worst offenders, so instead let’s relish exceptional operatic performers who actually managed to scale their vocalising to the message of the carol.
