Alice and the True Story of Christmas - Escola Lírio Ballet

About the Event

Alice and the True Story of Christmas is the Escola Lírio Ballet's year-end show. On Christmas Eve, Alice decorates the tree and welcomes her friends for dinner, amid presents, food and talk of new clothes. When everyone has gone and the house falls silent, she wonders whether that is all there is to Christmas and, in prayer, asks to understand the true meaning of the day. The answer arrives with a carrier pigeon: an invitation to step into a giant book. Inside the book, Alice follows the story of the birth of Jesus: Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem, the memory of the angel Gabriel's annunciation, the shepherds with their flocks, the stars guiding the three wise men and the animals preparing the grotto, up to the nativity scene, to the sound of Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. The soundtrack also includes excerpts from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, Saint-Saëns' The Carnival of the Animals, Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony and Ennio Morricone's Gabriel's Oboe. Back home, Alice is reunited with her parents, and the show ends with Adolphe Adam's O Holy Night, performed by soprano Ornella de Lucca and pianist André Schmidt.