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Opera performance coming to farm in Hockley Valley

August 1, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

The opera is returning to Hockley Valley later this month.

Denise Williams is happy to announce that Mozart’s Magic Flute is to be performed on the 4th Concession of Adjala/Tosorontio: 1418 Concession Road 4, Loretto, over two weekends, Aug. 9, 10, 11 and Aug. 16, 17 and 18.

Willams was so thrilled with the successes of their performances of Carmen last year and The Marriage of Figaro in their first year, that she wanted to keep producing opera in Hockley Valley.

Founder and Artistic Director of No Strings Theatre, Denise Williams, talked about Mozart’s wonderful music, “Mozart’s operas are great for young people. As the stories go back a long way, you can imagine them easily. It’s beautiful music, really great to sing. It’s not Wagnerian, especially good in such a short intensive.” 

Especially the audiences love Mozart and the company has put a lot of humour into this presentation. The music is in German but the dialogue is in English. There are birds led by No Strings youth singers, the Spirits. As a No Strings opera, there are puppets, a plan from years ago coming to fruition.

Two of the stars are coming from the U.S. And the “stage instructor,” Rob Herriott, is from Winnipeg. The pianist/music director and pianist/assistant music director are both from Houston.

“I’m singing the Sprecher, the high priest in the centre temple,” she told us, explaining the difference in this production, ”It’s an interesting role, normally written for a Baritone but this year, we two women are playing it – as women no pretending we’re men – the only recitative, bouncing back and forth between Sprecher and Tamino, a pivotal point when he has to go to rescue his Pamina.”

The first two years of these opera productions in the country were very well attended.

While the audience is seated under a tent, the opera is performed outside the cover for extensive activity and better acoustics.

As the third season there at the farm, in the Amphitheatre, they hope to perform other shows. A shout-out to D&D party rentals, who have “been very good with us,” said Williams.

There will be a Silent Auction. The No Strings program has master classes and the youth chorus age 12 to 13 are the youngest part of this production, which includes emerging artists from college and adult singers like Williams herself.

Basically, she tells us, she has dabbled in lots of things, doing her own concerts but her ongoing passion project is Melanatté, the hybrid name given to this musical project that combines some of the most famous vocal melodies from the Western European Art Music tradition with the harmonies and rhythms of the African Diaspora. The focus is based on themes of social justice. This is her “walk for the children.”

Like most arts organizations and theatres registered as charities, donations are gratefully received to promote and sustain the arts at a time when traditional support has been reduced and No Strings Theatre struggles with the rest.

To learn more about the country presentation of The Magic Flute go to

https://www.nostringstheatre.com/the-magic-flute

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