This is a song clip, “Let It Go,” written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, from Disney’s “Frozen,”. Elsa, whose secret powers have just been revealed flees Arendelle and uses her magic to create an ice palace.

“Frozen” is a story based on the original allegorical fairy tale, “The Snow Queen”.

This fairy tale has also been made into a chamber opera that lends itself to being played as a part of holiday operatic performances. It is a tale that centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by a little boy and a girl.

In the story, there is an evil troll (called the devil) that creates a magic mirror that has the power to change the appearance of things reflected in it. It does not reflect all of the good and beautiful aspects of people and things, but magnifies all of the bad and ugly aspects so that they look even worse than they really are. The devils decide to try to carry the mirror into Heaven to make the angels and God look like fools, but, instead, the mirror shatters and its splinters are blown around. Shards get into people’s ears and eyes, making their hearts frozen like blocks of ice and their eyes like the troll-mirror, only seeing the bad and ugly in people and things.

Years later there are 2 children, a boy named Kay and a girl named Gerda. Kay’s grandmother tells them the tale of the Snow Queen who rules over the snowflakes. One day Kay sees the Snow Queen, but she draws back from her in fear.

On a pleasant summer’s day, one of the troll-mirror splinters gets into Kay’s heart and eyes while he and Gerda are looking a picture book. His personality changes and he becomes cruel and aggressive. He no longer loves Gerda and makes fun of his grandmother. The only thing that looks beautiful to him are snowflakes that he sees through a magnifying glass.

In the winter he goes out with his sled where he meets the Snow Queen. She kisses him twice, once to numb his heart and again to make him forget Gerda and his family. She will not kiss him a third time because it would kill him. She takes him to her palace near the North Pole where he is content to live because of the troll-mirror in his heart and eyes.

Heartbroken, Gerda goes to look for him. She discovers that he is with the Snow Queen and makes friends along the way. She learns that the secret to saving Kay is in her sweet and innocent child’s heart.

Gerda finds Kay. He is on a frozen lake called the “Mirror of Reason” where he uses pieces of ice as components of a Chinese puzzle to from the word eternity. Gerda runs up to him and cries warm tears that melts his heart, burning away the troll mirror splinter in it. Kay then cries and the splinters in his eyes are dislodged. The two dance around joyfully causing the snow puzzle to dance around with them. When the puzzle pieces fall to the ground they spell the word “eternity”, the word that the Snow Queen wanted him to spell in order to set him free. The two of them leave, meet up with their friends, and return home, grown up.

At the end of the tale, the grandmother reads a passage from the Bible:

“Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 18:3).”

This tale lends itself to being used as a part of the spirit of Christmas season because it has to do with love, children, growing up, and the winter, as does the song “Let It Go”.