Elmo Saves Christmas

***Elmo Saves Christmas*** is a children's opera in two acts by Dick Lieb to a American libretto by Joe Raposo.

## Instrumentation

*Elmo Saves Christmas* is scored for the following instruments:

* piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons
* 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, bass tuba
* Percussion: timpani, a triangle, xylophone, glockenspiel, a tambourine, cymbals, chimes, a snare drum, and a bass drum
* harp
* 1st and 2nd violins, violas, violoncellos, and double basses

*on-stage*

* snow machine
* Slide Whistle
* Horn
* Siren Whistle
* TV broadcast

## Plot

### Act 1

Everyone on Sesame Street is preparing for the holidays on Christmas Eve. Elmo plans to stay up all night on Christmas Eve to see Santa Claus descend from the chimney. He falls asleep, but is awakened when Santa is stuck. Elmo nobly pulls Santa out, whereupon they determine the cause of the extra mass — a stowaway reindeer-in-training named Lightning. In gratitude, Santa offers Elmo a choice of two gifts: a pink bear, or a magical snowglobe. He wants the pink bear at first, but after Santa mentions it will grant him three wishes, Lightning recommends that Elmo take it, and he does. In order to use the snowglobe's power, Elmo needs to make a wish, shake the snowglobe, and say "Blitzen." Elmo uses his first wish to obtain a glass of water, because "Elmo was thirsty." Santa tells him he could have anything, but to not waste the other wishes.

On Christmas Day, the excitement and happiness everyone experiences inspires Elmo, and he wishes that Christmas was every day. At first, everyone is thrilled about it being Christmas again, thanks to a news report given by Kermit the Frog.

### Act 2

Elmo thinks it's a wonderful wish, but Santa returns from the North Pole to explain to Elmo that having Christmas every day isn't so great. Santa brings along Lightning, fitted to a special sleigh to take Elmo to the future, so Elmo can see what Christmas would be like at different times of the year.

Elmo sees Big Bird mope over the fact that Snuffy is in Cincinnati, spending Christmas with his grandmother for a whole year, Maria and Luis get crabby over the Fix-It Shop being closed all year, everyone annoyed over *It's a Wonderful Life* always playing on television, and general unhappiness is evident. Also, Santa's elves are fatigued and end up producing a cow-bunny combination called the "Moo-Bunny." Other holidays, like Easter and Independence Day, aren't as fun anymore either. However, one Sesame Street resident who enjoys Christmas every day is Oscar the Grouch. He loves to see all the broken toasters piled up by the Fix-It Shop, a whole lot of trash piled up by his trash can and that there's nothing on television but *It's a Wonderful Life*. He says it's a "bah, humbug" Christmas every day.

A year after that first fateful Christmas, the Fix-It Shop and other stores have gone out of business, Count von Count has grown tired of counting many things to do with Christmas in the course of 365 days, all the carolers have lost their voices from singing so much, Christmas trees have become endangered species, and even Santa is about to retire from his job (and move to Florida). That's when Elmo realizes "if everyday was Christmas, there wouldn't be Christmas at all." Elmo then decides to use his third wish to undo his second, but he shakes the snowglobe so much that it flies out of his hands and smashes to the ground before he can finish making the wish, which means it will be Christmas forever. All looks lost until Elmo suggests that Lightning could fly him back in time to the Christmas Eve when everything started (before he chose the snowglobe), and Lightning does so. This time, Elmo reluctantly chooses to take the pink bear from Santa, but Santa reveals that he has a Moo-Bunny on him, and Elmo delightedly chooses it for his gift. Impressed with Lightning's work, Santa offers to teach him how to be one of his reindeer. The next morning, Big Bird is standing near the Fix-it-Shop, alone and sad. He is brightened up when he sees Snuffy, who tells him that rather than visiting his granny in Cincinnati, she came to Sesame Street instead. They join the others in the arbor around the big Christmas tree to sing "Keep Christmas with You (All Through the Year)."

## Songs

* It's Christmas Again
* Every Day Can't Be Christmas
* Give Your Friend an Easter Egg for Christmas
* All I Want for Christmas Is You
* Keep Christmas with You (All Through the Year)

## Arias and musical numbers

Although the score is through-composed, within the general structure of the opera there are several identifiable numbers: 2 solos given to the four main characters and a brief love duet. Only Elmo's *Every Day Can't Be Christmas (Reprise)*, the best-known of the solos, is separable from its context and can be sung as a concert piece.