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Purchase Opera Presents Amahl and the Night Visitors Dec. 9-11

Date Released: 11/23/2009

Jacque Trussel directs Voice and Opera students in this holiday opera by Giancarlo Menotti. Hugh Murphy conducts students from the Purchase Symphony Orchestra.

A holiday favorite, Amahl and the Night Visitors will be presented by the award winning Purchase Opera on December 9-11 in the Conservatory of Music Recital Hall at Purchase College.

 

Directed by Jacque Trussel, this classic by Giancarlo Menotti features Voice and Opera students from the Conservatory of Music accompanied by the Purchase Symphony Orchestra.  The conductor is Hugh Murphy.

 

Performances are Dec. 9, 10, 11 at 10:30 AM, and at 7 PM on Dec. 11.

Tickets sold at the door are $15, $5 children under 16.  Call 914-251-5909 for information.

 

This fully staged opera classic tells the tale of a crippled boy Amahl and his mother who live among the shepherds of Jerusalem.  They are visited by three Kings on their way to pay homage to a newborn child in Bethlehem. Despite their poverty, Amahl and his mother open their meager home to the kings on a starlit night.  What happens next is nothing less than a miracle.

 

Amahl and the Night Visitors explores love, the search for spiritual identity, and reminds us to be thankful for the grace that comes at the turn of every corner.

 

Director Jacque Trussel is Chair of Opera Performance and Vocal Studies at the Purchase College Conservatory of Music.  He is an internationally renowned tenor who has performed over 80 leading roles with more than 50 opera companies throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala and L’Opera Bastille in Paris, among others.  His Grammy nominated solo CD, Sounds and Sweet Airs, was released to great reviews.  He was named Stage Director of the Year by Classical Singer magazine for 2005 and led the Purchase Opera to several recent National Association Awards for Best Production.

 

Hugh Murphy has been Conductor and Music Director of the Purchase Opera since 1999.  Productions under his baton have won first place in the national Opera Association’s Opera Productions Competition for several years and have been favorably reviewed in Opera News magazine. He prepares professional vocal; artists for their performances with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies including the Metropolitan Opera of new York, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, L’Opera Bastille Bayerische Staasoper.  A Professor of music at Purchase College, he coaches voice students and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in German and French Art Song, Operatic Literature and Styles.

 

Students in the Conservatory of Music Opera program train for careers in professional

classical singing and opera.