Christmas with The Tabernacle Choir concert to characteristic Oklahoma native Kelli O’Hara

Broadway’s Kelli O’Hara, an Oklahoma indigenous, and Richard Thomas of “The Waltons” are the guest artists for “Christmas with The Tabernacle Choir,” but there is one more stellar attraction: The once-a-year occasion was taped pre-coronavirus, free of wellbeing constraints or digital tips.

A 21,000-seat auditorium is house to the concert taped over 3 nights in December 2019 with the 360-member choir and a 110-musician orchestra. It’s normal observe to record the “spectacle” — as the elaborate, many years-outdated Xmas event is referred to as — to air the subsequent yr and cherry-decide every single performance’s highlights.

“Right now, it appears nearly like it’s Mars,” O’Hara stated, evaluating the live performance with situations held beneath coronavirus limits. “I’m just genuinely happy to be a section of it. I imagine it’ll be uplifting and a thing to glimpse ahead to.”

“Christmas with The Tabernacle Choir,” taped at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Temple Square elaborate in Salt Lake City, airs as an hour-lengthy special on Monday on PBS stations (verify neighborhood listings for moments). A 90-moment edition is established for Thursday on BYUtv, a cable and streaming channel.

As component of its “Americana Christmas” concept, the live performance pays tribute to musical genres which include folks, bluegrass and African American spirituals, and to holiday break traditions and stories that are exceptional to the nation, according to a launch.

Between the tunes: “Mashing Through the Snow,” aka “Jingle Bells,” with what is described as an “organ extravaganza” performed by Richard Elliott with the Chilly Creek bluegrass band, and “Mary’s Minor Boy Little one,” a commonly recorded tune by the Black composer and actor Jester Hairston.

The extended BYUtv application involves a Rodgers and Hammerstein medley by O’Hara, who acquired the 2015 ideal musical actress Tony Award for her efficiency in the songwriting team’s “The King and I.”

Thomas serves as narrator and performs readings of an adaptation of Pearl S. Buck’s tale “Christmas Day in the Early morning,” an excerpt from Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” and Biblical passages describing the delivery of Jesus.