Opera Philadelphia Channel Presents PASSION OF SCROOGE, Streams Through January 8

During Festival O22, Opera Philadelphia showcased films from opera companies and creators across the country in the inaugural Opera on Film series.

That spirit of deep collaboration and radical distribution continues this season on the Opera Philadelphia Channel streaming service, as audiences can experience some of the films spotlighted in the festival alongside interesting opera programs presented in limited runs.

Premiering on Friday, Nov. 4, the opera channel gets into the holiday spirit with The Passion of Scrooge, a feature-length 2018 film hailed as "first-rate and remarkably illustrative storytelling" by Opera News at "a worthwhile and timely addition to the joys of the season" by the Whole Note.

Is this a film about Ebenezer Scrooge? About a composer's life? An opera within an opera? The Passion of Scrooge blurs these lines between performance, documentary, and fiction, into a cinematic concert experience that's seasoned with magical reality. Composer Jon Deak has adapted Charles Dickens' timeless tale into a contemporary opera that melts the heart but doesn't avoid the darkness in Scrooge that's still resonant with the material concerns of our time. Using neither period costumes, nor set pieces to reconstruct old England, the film invites audiences to experience Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol with the imaginative possibilities of a radio play. And then, to meet those visions in your head, filmmaker H. Paul Moon's floating camera intimately captures musicians performing the score as characters themselves, led by baritone William Sharp, in this ageless haunted redemption story about "us, everyone."

The Passion of Scrooge streams through Sunday, January 8, 2023, and is available for viewing with an Opera Philadelphia Channel subscription for $9.99 per month or $99 per year. Visit operaphila.tv to start streaming this and other programs such as David T. Little's Black Lodge, Poulenc's La voix humaine starring Patricia Racette, Rene Orth's K-Pop-infused short TakTakShoo, and Tyshawn Sorey's Cycles of My Being starring tenor Lawrence Brownlee.

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