A List
11/19/07

Local Boys Share Lead Role In SLU's 'Amahl And The Night Visitors'

CANTON - Potsdam resident Graham Garland and Colton resident Michael Fulton - both age 12 - share the leading role in St. Lawrence University's production of Gian Carlo Menotti's beloved one-act Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors.

Performances will take place Friday, November 30, and Saturday, December 1, at 8 p.m. at the Russell Opera House, and Sunday, December 16, at 2 p.m. in Gulick Theater at St. Lawrence. Admission is free for the performances at the Russell Opera House, but a "free will offering" will be collected. For the performance at St. Lawrence, free tickets are required, and will be available the week before the performance at the Gulick Box Office, from 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The opera is the St. Lawrence University Audrey Love Charitable Foundation Production, funded through a generous grant from the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation.

Amahl and the Night Visitors is about a poor, crippled shepherd boy and his mother, who are visited by the Three Kings while on their journey to visit the Christ child. Having no food in the house, they invite their neighbor shepherds to visit and offer their humble, but much appreciated hospitality and entertainment. Later, as all are asleep, the mother, desperate in her poverty, attempts to steal some of the gold and is caught. The benevolent Kings understandingly forgive her actions, noting that the future King of Love will not need the gold. The mother gives back the gold and wishes she could offer a gift to the child. Amahl offers his crutch and at the climax of the opera, experiences a miraculous healing. Acknowledging the healing as a sign of the Christ, all rejoice, and Amahl leaves with the Kings to pay homage himself. It is the first opera written expressly for television; the piece premiered on NBC on Christmas Eve in 1951.

This production is directed by Gerard Moses, emeritus professor of drama at Syracuse University; music director is Barry Torres, director of music ensembles at St. Lawrence.

Garland, a seventh-grade student at A.A. Kingston Middle School in Potsdam, plays the role of Amahl on November 30 and December 16. Fulton, who is home-schooled, will perform as Amahl on December 1, and provide "back-up" for the December 16 performance.

Other roles are played by a University alumnus and current students. Members of the orchestra include local professional musicians, and St. Lawrence music faculty and students.

For more information, contact the music department at 315-229-5184.

-30-

More: Arts at St. Lawrence