STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

The Hurdy Gurdy Girls transported the audience back to the 1800s when the music of Americana was formed and when a trip to Boise would have taken four days.

“And you would have looked forward to it for a year,” said Kenny Ward, all dressed up in a top hat and red bow tie.

Sun Valley Opera and Broadway’s “Country Christmas Celebration” looked back to the past and the future as the Hurdy Gurdy Girls provided a throwback to the past and Sun Valley Opera launched its 25th season.

Kenny Ward joined the Hurdy Gurdy Girls’ Sweet Joy Lee from Tennessee as narrator and performer.

Attendees had the opportunity to shed the usual Christmas dress-up for yoked cowboy shirts and hats. And, with no snow on the ground on the streets, they could wear their best cowboy boots, as well.

“I can’t tell you how excited we are for all the events coming up,” said Robyn Watson, the organization’s executive director. “We have a catered Mardis Gras Party with beads and feathers in February. Then, a ‘Phantom of the Opera’ performance with three of our favorites coming back, each playing one role in the opera.

“And next Christmas is going to be themed ‘White Christmas Comes to Sun Valley’—half Christmas music and half ‘Sun Valley Serenade.’ ”

Those attending this year’s holiday’s performance enjoyed wraps and other nibbles donated by The Village Market, as well as wine and cocoa.

Gerri Pesch was among those telling Santa what she wanted for Christmas.

Kenny Ward, joined the Hurdy Girls trio of Annie Maude, Natalie Rose and Sweet Joy Lee as he told attendees to imagine a time when the entire house was filled with the sound of tambourines and guitars instead of video games.

Hurdy Gurdy Girls came from Germany and other countries to mining towns like Bellevue and Hailey. Chaperoned by married couples, they performed for the miners and sometimes even danced with them as the men dreamed about the gals they left behind to come out West and seek their fortune.

They might have danced to “Turkey in the Straw,” which became one of the first recorded pieces of music in 1926. Or, they might have waltzed.

“A young man might dance with a Hurdy Gurdy girl to a waltz he danced with a loved one so long ago,” Ward said.

Megan Lewis, Nicole Derden, Dena Forstall and Baby Lily enjoyed pairing Christmas sweaters with cowboy attire for Sun Valley Opera and Broadway’s Country Christmas Celebration.

“These were respected women who were protected by their chaperones,” he added. “The building that now houses Christopher and Company in Hailey was a house for Hurdy Gurdy girls.”

THE SEASON AHEAD:

MARDI GRAS PARTY AND CONCERT—6 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 17, The Argyros

Will feature New Orleans-inspired hors d’oeuvres, buffet and wine bar with a Hurricane specialty drink. NBC’s “The Voice” finalist Cait Martin will present a jazzy concert accompanied by a four-piece band following a parade of “When the Saints Go Marching In” from the Wood River High School Band. Masks will be available for attendees to don and beads will be thrown.

Colla Voce singers Andrea Pettinger, Kenzie Miller, Cookie Cook, Ginger Spence and Issy Rosselini joined John Mauldin in singing Christmas carols prior to the show. There would have been more singers, but some were taking part in The Spot’s last performance of “Anything Goes.”

PHANOTOM OF THE OPERA GALA, 5:30p.m. Tuesday, July 14 at The Argyros

The red, white and black affair will kick off with a Champagne Cocktail Hour and Seated Dinner catered by Silver Fox Catering. Centerpieces will feature a single rose in a glass cylinder with a phantom mask at the base. Hadleigh Adams, Theodora Cottarel and Scott Ruben La Marca will then appear as the Phantom, Christine and Viscount de Chagny singing the “best of” songs.

Attendees will be given black and white masks, with sponsors getting gold masks and gold fans.

Tickets to both the Mardis Gras Party and the Phantom of the Opera Gala are available now at https://www.sunvalleyopera.com/. Or, call 818-577-7811.