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What is the connection between Guernsey, Victor Hugo and Salt Lake City? The answer is the 2024 Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert, to be screened across America on PBS this December.
The Tabernacle Choir is based in Salt Lake City, although they have performed all over the world.
This 360-member chorus of men and women, all volunteers, has performed at World’s Fairs and expositions, at inaugurations of U.S. presidents, in acclaimed concert halls from Australia and Europe to Asia and the Middle East, on television broadcasts, and their work can be viewed on multiple streaming platforms. The choir has even been referred to as “America’s Choir,” as a result of their high standard of popular choral music.
Their Christmas Concerts are phenomenally popular, with audiences of 21,000 people per day for three days (the population of Guernsey) attending their sold-out performances, in one of the largest concert halls in the world, and the TV programme is the most watched Christmas TV show on PBS in America, with an estimated audience of over 3 million.
Like so many things in America, it is huge. It is a celebration of all things Christmas in both song, music and theatre, and in the programme that will be screened this month, the main theatrical piece is set in Guernsey! (Christmas With The Tabernacle Choir | PBS)
In previous years, theatrical pieces have included stories from Christmas past from around the world – for example, the writing of George Frederic Handel’s The Messiah and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
As David Warner, the director of ‘Victor Hugo’s Wonderous Feast’, who was in Guernsey in early December, explained, he was recovering from an illness and surfing the internet for inspiration for the next Christmas Concert play when he came across a story that sparked his imagination. He found two articles, written by Dinah Bott, chair of The Victor Hugo in Guernsey Society, on the Priaux Library website (Victor Hugo's Christmas fete, 1865 | Priaulx Library ; Les Miserables de Guernesey: Children | Priaulx Library). He already knew the work Les Misérables, and already knew that Victor Hugo had held Christmas parties for the poor children of Guernsey, but it was these articles with their attention to detail and meticulous research that really brought the story to life for him. I would encourage anyone who is interested to read Dinah’s articles – they really are fabulous.
David Warner reached out to his friend and colleague, Alex Mackenzie Johns, a Jersey born professor of theatre and media arts who now lives in America, and she contacted Dinah for further information. After that, they all corresponded regularly, putting together the backbone of the play based on the many contemporary records of the Christmas parties that Victor Hugo and his family hosted for the poor children at Hauteville House.
One learning point for me was how formative the experience of being in Guernsey was for Victor Hugo in the writing of his world-famous book Les Misérables. The novel was started in Paris but abandoned for many years. He started writing it once more when he was in Guernsey, changing it and developing characters based on people he had met on the island.
In 1860 his wife, Adéle Hugo, came home greatly distressed after having seen a malnourished five-year old girl in the Guernsey market-place, crying with the pain of having to carry a baby in her arms, an image that could have come straight from the pages of Les Misérables.
At the invitation of The Victor Hugo in Guernsey Society, David, accompanied by Alex, treated their Guernsey audience to a preview of this year’s Tabernacle Christmas Concert. It was truly wonderful, heartwarming and inspiring. The compassion of both Adèle and Victor Hugo towards the needy children that they saw around them, and their attempts to help right the wrongs that they saw, both through the writing of Les Misérables, and the holding of weekly meals for the poor children of Guernsey, was brought to life on the stage. That they inspired further similar efforts around the world is a historical fact, and should act as an encouragement to anyone who wants to make a difference to the world. “To love is to Act” said Hugo, advocating not just for words but also for action. His words are just as relevant today, and it is wonderful to see that they are being spread around the world once more this Christmas time.
(The official Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert will be available in full from the 16th December through the PBS app which can be downloaded from multiple screening platforms – PBS: Public Broadcasting Service )
