{"id":421442,"date":"2025-12-03T08:54:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T08:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/421442\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T08:54:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T08:54:14","slug":"opera-star-returns-home-to-philadelphia-for-wanamaker-holiday-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/421442\/","title":{"rendered":"Opera star returns home to Philadelphia for Wanamaker holiday concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wanamaker Grand Court<\/a> transformed into a concert hall Tuesday night as Opera Philadelphia presented its one-night-only “Home for the Holidays” performance, drawing hundreds to the historic Center City landmark.<\/p>\n

The concert, recorded for a special WHYY broadcast airing Dec. 23 at 8 p.m., featured Opera Philadelphia’s orchestra and chorus, dancers, and the famed pipe Wanamaker Organ<\/a> under the glow of the building’s holiday light show<\/a>. Company General Director and President Anthony Roth Costanzo said the goal was to bring new life to a space many consider home.<\/p>\n

“We love activating this space, making it come alive, and reminding people that this is Philadelphia’s living room,” he said.<\/p>\n

One of the night’s biggest moments was a true homecoming. Soprano Leah Hawkins, a Philadelphia native now performing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, returned to sing for the city where she grew up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing like coming home and being loved on by those who knew you when,” Hawkins said.<\/p>\n

Her sister, Briannah Hawkins, sat in the audience recording the performance on her phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’m so proud of her accomplishments,” she said. “It warms my heart.”<\/p>\n

The event drew an early crowd. One attendee, Halley Hetrick, waited an hour and a half in the cold to be first through the doors. She says it’s a holiday tradition to visit the Wanamaker Light Show and see the organ play, and she enjoys experiencing the festive event among the community.<\/p>\n

“You have all walks of life, all sorts of people that come through here and join together for something that we all cherish for the holiday season,” Hetrick said.<\/p>\n

Opera Philadelphia staged the concert as part of the PIPE UP! series, which has brought performances to the Wanamaker Building throughout the season.<\/p>\n

For those who missed the show, the Wanamaker Organ will continue offering holiday performances throughout December. The Bearded Ladies Cabaret will perform five shows<\/a> in partnership with the PIPE UP! series, titled “It’s Giving Cabaret”.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Wanamaker Grand Court transformed into a concert hall Tuesday night as Opera Philadelphia presented its one-night-only “Home…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":421443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,14655,40808,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-421442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-center-city","10":"tag-holiday-season","11":"tag-pa","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115654798016210311","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}