Scrooge (1994)

Concert Scenes from A Christmas Carol for Bass-Baritone, Chorus and Orchestra

Duration:  18 minutes
Bass-baritone; Chorus; 2(pic)2(ca)2(Ebcl/bcl)2(cbn)/2220/timp.3perc/hp.pf(hpd)/str

Commissioned by Charles Nelson

Premiere Performance:  December 9, 1994; El Paso Symphony;
Charles Nelson, Bass; RXR, Conductor

Recording:  Robert Xavier Rodríguez Works for Chorus and Orchestra,
Albany, TROY 430
University of Miami Symphony Orchestra and Chorus;
George Cordes, Bass-baritone; Thom M. Sleeper, Conductor

Illustration by John Leech from the original 1843
edition of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens

A Christmas Pops classic in its own right.  Scrooge elegantly telescopes the action and myriad characters of Dickens' story into an 18-minute tour de force featuring the single character of Scrooge, in costume in front of the orchestra, accompanied by a chorus of ghosts and holiday revelers.  Rodríguez' music blends traditional English carols and London street cries with mischievous winks at Verdi's Don Carlo (linking The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come with Verdi's Grand Inquisitor), The Beggar's Opera and Handel's Messiah.

Program Note:

Scrooge (1994), Concert Scenes from 'A Christmas Carol' for Bass-Baritone, Chorus and Orchestra is based on the Charles Dickens classic for the Christmas season.  The work was commissioned by Bass-Baritone Charles Nelson, who sang the premiere performance in 1994 under the composer’s direction.

In Scrooge Rodríguez has telescoped the action and myriad characters of Dickens' story into an 18-minute tour de force of five short scenes featuring the single character of Scrooge accompanied by a chorus of ghosts and holiday revelers:

            Scene One - Christmas Eve
            Scene Two - Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Past
            Scene Three - The Ghost of Christmas Present
            Scene Four - The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
            Scene Five - Christmas Morning

Scrooge is scored for a Mozart-sized orchestra of winds by twos, timpani, harp, piano (doubling harpsichord and celesta) and strings, plus three percussionists playing an extensive battery of atmospheric instruments, including chimes, sleigh bells, crotales, whip, slide whistle, thundersheet, ratchet, and, appropriately for Scrooge, the jawbone of an ass, a pitcher of coins (to be poured into a tambourine) and a cash register.  Rodríguez' music blends traditional English carols and London street cries with mischievous winks at Handel's Messiah, Verdi's Don Carlo (linking the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come with Verdi's Grand Inquisitor) and The Beggar's Opera.  All are fused with Rodríguez' characteristic "richly lyrical atonality" (Musical America) in a style "romantically dramatic" (Washington Post) and full of the composer's "all-encompassing sense of humor" (Los Angeles Times).