Details
The Buccleuch Centre
Langholm
Langholm
Dumfriesshire
DG13 0AW
England
Programme
Gian Carlo Menotti – Amahl & The Night Visitors
Performers
Opera Bohemia
Other concerts in this Series (+)
Programme Note
Amahl and the night visitors
Opera Synopsis
Amahl, a disabled boy who can walk only with a crutch sits playing his shepherd's pipe when his mother calls for him. After much persuasion, he enters the house but as he is guilty of telling tall tales, his mother does not believe him when he tells her there is an amazing star over their roof.
There is a knock at the door and the mother tells Amahl to go see who it is. He is amazed when he sees three splendidly dressed kings. The Three Kings tell the mother and Amahl they are on a long journey to give gifts to a wondrous Child and they would like to rest at their house. The mother goes to fetch firewood, and Amahl seizes the opportunity to speak with the kings. The mother returns and Amahl is told to go fetch the neighbours so the kings may be fed and entertained properly.
After the neighbours have left and the kings are resting, the mother attempts to steal for her son some of the kings' gold that was meant for the Christ child. She is thwarted by the kings and when Amahl wakes to find them grabbing his mother, he attacks them. Understanding their need, King Melchior says she may keep the gold as the Holy Child will not need earthly power or wealth to build his kingdom. The mother says she has waited all her life for such a king and asks the kings to take back the gold. She and Amahl wish to send a gift but have nothing to send except his crutch. When he offers it to the kings, his leg is miraculously healed. With permission from his mother, he leaves with the kings to see the Child and give his crutch in thanks for being healed.
Opera Bohemia
In January 2010, Douglas Nairne and Alistair Digges decided that they would create a production of Puccini’s La Bohème to be performed in their home towns and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. After the overwhelming success of their initial performances, they decided to take La Bohème further and toured around Scotland. The experience the young cast and audiences shared was very special and following feedback from audience members around the country, expressing their enthusiasm and desire to see more productions, Opera Bohemia was formed. Now in its fourth year, Opera Bohemia has added highly successful performances of Donizetti’s Lucia Di Lammermoor, Puccini’s Madame Butterfly and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin to its achievements.
The company has performed at over twenty venues across Scotland with recent highlights including the first opera at the new Beacon Arts Centre Theatre (Greenock) and an invitation to perform Madame Butterfly in London. The performance took place in Middle Temple and helped raise over a quarter of a million pounds for the Muir Maxwell Trust. 2013 saw the formation of the Opera Bohemia Ensemble, a chamber orchestra showcasing some of Scotland’s most talented young musicians. The orchestra played for the company’s August performances of Eugene Onegin.
The group is comprised of passionate individuals, driven by their love for their art and their enthusiasm to increase the availability of opera to a wider audience. They continue to tour their operas to more remote areas of Scotland where the opportunity to experience their modern interpretation of these famous operas, performed by rising operatic stars, has proved hugely popular.
