The Wanamaker Christmas concert took a defeat and turned it into a party, in the most Philly way possible
The evening, underscored with nostalgia, celebrated what the former Macy's space once was and might one day be again.
The Christmas tree was indeed magical and the music, in turns, brilliant and warmly enveloping. Even the Wanamaker Eagle got into the act, crowned for the occasion with a lit Christmas wreath hung around its neck.
A certain misty, nostalgic conjuring of Christmas past has reached its apotheosis in the Wanamaker Grand Court, and now the bittersweet countdown begins. Tuesday night’s “Home for the Holidays” concert is done, the Bearded Ladies Cabaret checks in next week, the Light Show and Dickens Village attractions run through Christmas Eve, and then the space closes for perhaps a couple of years while the building undergoes renovations.
The one-night-only concert in the former Center City Macy’s did exactly what it should have. In the best gritty Philadelphia tradition, it took a defeat — the departure of a major retailer and the imperilment of the beating heart of Christmas in the city — and turned it into a party.
Opera Philadelphia was the creative director behind the event, which swung from sincere and spiritual (chorus members running their fingers around the wet rims of glasses to produce an ethereal shimmer) to the head-scratching (a couple of dancers in dinosaur suits moving to an excerpt from Philip Glass’s 1000 Airplanes on the Roof).
The forces — orchestra, chorus, dancers, superb soprano Leah Hawkins, and clarion-countertenor (and Opera Philadelphia chief) Anthony Roth Costanzo led by conductor Geoffrey McDonald — delivered a variety-hour-plus celebration a la “Radio City Christmas Spectacular,” if in miniature.
But the best vibe of the evening came from above via the hands and foot-peddling feet of organist Peter Richard Conte. He showed how a musician, instrument, and their space can seem made for each other, and why the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ is not one instrument, but many. The highly inventive organist called upon fat French horns and muted trumpets in his own arrangement of Victor Herbert’s “March of the Toys.”
Pure joy.
Christmas in this space triggers memories unique to each one of us, but it was a nice stroke by 10th Floor Productions to animate the marbled expanses around the courtyard’s arches with projected images of marching bears and soldiers for anyone who remembers the store as the source for holiday toys.
That the organ is still being played in this sliver of a post-Macy’s era is largely due to a $1 million donation from philanthropist Frederick R. Haas for the Pipe Up! series (as well as many previous gifts to the organ).
Rarely have a donor and his cause been more personally intertwined. Haas is himself a trained organist who could sometimes be heard playing in the space in its department store days. On Tuesday, he played his medley A Christmas Improvisation, tapping into a supply of enormous, overtone-rich bells in “Silent Night” and beautiful, unusual harmonizations in “Carol of the Bells.”
If the evening had a theme beyond Christmas, it was nostalgia.
Sub rosa, though, this and every event in the Pipe Up! series in the past few months has been about the future — about making the case for the Wanamaker Grand Court as a space that should survive as a public right of way no matter its next life.
TF Cornerstone, the building owner, has been generous and respectful of preserving public access so far. As the developer renovates and cuts deals with prospective tenants, access and the future of the organ as a daily presence hang in the balance.
One piece on Tuesday night was a reminder of the special dynamic at risk.
When Opera Philadelphia flash-mobbed Macy’s with the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah in 2010, it packed a punch because of the surprise of it. Music was suddenly in the best place of all: somewhere you’d never expect it. That’s also the secret superpower of the organ.
It was great to hear the “Hallelujah Chorus” here again. But heard now, it seems like a challenge issued, illustrating what the space once was and might one day be again.
“Home for the Holidays” will be broadcast Dec. 23, 8 p.m. on WHYY TV12, WHYY radio (90.9 FM), and via whyy.org.
The Pipe Up! series continues with the Bearded Ladies Cabaret’s “It’s Giving Cabaret” in the Greek Hall at the Wanamaker Building, 13th and Market Sts., Dec. 10-14. operaphila.org.
The Wanamaker Light Show and Dickens Village run through Christmas Eve. visitphilly.com.