A Christmas Carol in Four Staves is a one-man performance of the historic 1868 public reading text that Dickens used while on his extensive public reading tours in Europe and America. After many public readings over several years, Dickens reduced the reading time to ninety minutes by dividing the story into four staves (or chapters), while retaining the episodes that worked best with his audiences.  In a letter to his son Henry in February of 1868 Dickens wrote:  “From ten years ago to last night, I have never read to an audience, but I have watched for an opportunity of striking out something better somewhere.”  

Like many people, I have had a lifelong love for Dickens’ Carol in its many incarnations as film and theatre. When I discovered the reading text several years ago, I knew that I wanted to find a way to share it with audiences. In studying the Carol to prepare for performances and recording, I was constantly drawn to the musical aspects in Dickens’ use of language; the rhythmic flow of the words. Each character and scene is beautifully crafted with a musician’s ear for phrasing and cadence. The reading text is a fascinating insight into the choices Dickens, the writer and editor, made for Dickens, the performer, in distilling the story to its essence. I have added music where it is referred to in the story and also where I felt it could provide emotional support or atmospheric underscore.

I have been performing the Carol for several years, mostly benefit performances for groups such as the Northern Wisconsin Learning Center, Buddy Camps for Blind Children and Equine Assisted Therapy for at risk youth well as benefits for the Joffrey Ballet, Rembrandt Chamber Players and the Grant Park Music Festival. The Carol In Four Staves is a rediscovery of the piece as a solo performance work, relying on the power of great storytelling in communicating the soul of the story, moving away from the Disneyified, pixilated and often over-produced theatrics and returning to the story Dickens himself so loved to share with his audiences.

Frank Babbitt completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Music and Drama at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI and later received a Masters in Violin Performance from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. After beginning doctoral studies in performance at Northwestern University, he was appointed to the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra in 1995. He has made many appearances with orchestras and chamber ensembles as narrator, most recently at Millennium Park with the Grant Park Orchestra in the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidas’ “The Northern Lights.”