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 Ralph Vaughan Williams’s On Christmas Night is a one‐act masque co-created in 1926 with choreographer Adolph Bolm. Loosely drawing on Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, it integrates singing, dancing and mime into a single theatrical tableau. The work premiered in Chicago by Bolm’s company and later received its London staging in 1935.

Structurally, the piece unfolds as a sequence of narrated and pantomimed scenes rather than a conventional operatic form. Vocal soloists and chorus interject carol‐like melodies and original song material, while dancers depict the story’s shifts in mood—from festive celebration to contemplative reflection—without spoken dialogue.

Musically, Vaughan Williams blends traditional modal harmony with his characteristic pastoral sensibility. Instrumental interludes feature lightly scored orchestration—woodwinds, strings and occasional brass—supporting the stage action with restrained dynamics and clear textures. The overall effect is atmospheric and ceremonial rather than overtly programmatic, offering a stylized Christmas‐time tableau that balances dance, drama and choral lyricism.