The story on which this opera is based shows a darker, more troubled side of celebrated Canadian author Stephen Leacock’s psyche. Known for his gentle satire on small town life, Leacock wrote the short story « Merry Christmas » as his own cry against the horrors of World War I, and the inescapable robbing of innocence that war brings. In a deceptively short tale, he uses the character of Father Christmas, as a symbolic guardian of all our innocence, cruelly turned into a mad, shell-shocked victim of war, to bring his message home. Using a device that pays homage to his favourite author, Charles Dickens, in the classic « A Christmas Carol », Leacock (himself a character in the drama) is visited by two spirits over the course of one night. These otherworldly visitations will lead to a transformation – one that empowers the author to use his writing as a tool for peace. – Pamela Post, librettist