Holiday Gaiety: The Music Still Holds its Own

Peaches Christ and Edwin Outwater (from the event page for last night’s performance)

One might say that Holiday Gaiety is the “adult entertainment” side of the eleven Holidays with the Symphony programs presented by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in Davies Symphony Hall. Conductor Edwin Outwater, who has become a familiar face in Davies since his debut in November of 2001, shared emcee duties with drag icon Peaches Christ. The SFS ensemble was relatively reduced but was joined by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, directed by Jacob Stensberg, and two vocalists, mezzo Nikola Printz, probably familiar to most opera-goers in this town, and Alex Newell. However, most of the show involved Christ’s encounters with four other drag performers: Latrice Royal, Lady Camden, Kylie Minono, and Sister Roma.

It goes without saying that this was not your usual “concert-going evening” in Davies. However, Holiday Gaiety was launched by Outwater and Christ in 2017, and it has been going strong as a “Holiday Standard” ever since then. Mind you, there was no shortage of opportunities just to enjoy the music, beginning with Leroy Anderson’s “A Christmas Festival” serving as overture, a brief excerpt from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 71 music for the ballet The Nutcracker, and the exquisite delivery of Adolphe Adam’s “O Holy Night” by Newell. However, the real show-stopper came from Printz, who delivered a spot-on account of “Casta diva,” from the first act of Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma while executing a seriously jaw-dropping trapeze act.

Mine is the generation whose motto, back in the Sixties, was “Let it all hang out.” We grew up thinking that the world was our oyster, and the Vietnam War provided a reality check we had not anticipated. I suppose that is why a song like “I Will Survive” became a hit tune. Holiday Gaiety reminded me of the spirit with which we did survive. Thus, in the midst of all the corny jokes and bad puns (“Women’s Underwear” sung to the tune of “Winter Wonderland”), I realized that my own “spirit of survival” was being delightfully refreshed.