Clas­si­cal Mu­sic De­vel­op­ment Foun­da­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (CMDFTT) Young Artist Col­lec­tive pre­mieres Mozart's The Im­pre­sario, on Ju­ly 28 at The­atre 1, the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (Na­pa), 10 Keate Street, Port-of-Spain. A com­ic opera in one act, The Im­pre­sario fea­tures Raguel Gabriel, Na­talia Dop­well, Ayrice Wil­son, Di­a­hann White, Daniel De Craine-Pierre and Stephan Her­nan­dez. The Im­pre­sario fea­tures show-stop­ping arias and hi­lar­i­ous en­sem­bles as two so­pra­nos do bat­tle at a heat­ed au­di­tion to win the cov­et­ed lead role in the Im­pre­sario's new­ly com­posed opera. This pro­duc­tion is co-or­di­nat­ed by the same team that led the very suc­cess­ful CMDFTT Young Artist Col­lec­tive de­but pro­duc­tion of Rav­el's L'en­fant et les Sor­ti­leges, and in­cludes di­rec­tor Dr Helmer Hilwig, with mu­si­cal di­rec­tion by June Nathaniel and pi­ano ac­com­pa­ni­ment by En­rique Ali.

Speak­ing on Wednes­day, Hilwig dis­closed that the pro­duc­tion has been in re­hearsal for just two to three weeks. He ex­plained, "It comes off af­ter Na­talia (Dop­well) asked me to di­rect Les En­fants de Sor­ti­leges, a chil­dren's opera by Mau­rice Rav­el. The piece is sel­dom per­formed be­cause it is al­most im­pos­si­ble to stage it. How­ev­er, it was quite a suc­cess. So much so that it was crit­i­cal­ly ac­claimed as 'an ex­quis­ite treat for mu­sic lovers'. "Rav­el's is not the eas­i­est mu­sic to ap­pre­ci­ate so I was amazed how the chil­dren who at­tend­ed, how much they en­joyed it." Hilwig added, "Na­talia want­ed us to do some­thing else for sum­mer but my sum­mer is so busy. This piece, how­ev­er, is some­what short, but it is very en­joy­able." Ali, the opera's mu­si­cian said, "The Im­pre­sario should be fun­ny as it has been lo­cal­ly adapt­ed. The mu­sic of Mozart has not been changed and com­pris­es five mu­si­cal num­bers which are the same as the orig­i­nal, all con­nect­ed by a script which has been lo­calised. "We have been re­hears­ing the mu­sic not too long, just about two months. "The on­ly thing I think might be odd for a lo­cal au­di­ence is that it slips from lo­cal ver­nac­u­lar di­rect­ly in­to a Mozart aria."

The new­ly trans­lat­ed and adapt­ed ver­sion of The Im­pre­sario, fea­tur­ing five singers, was de­vel­oped by Amer­i­can play­wright Cal­lie Kim­ball for the 'In Se­ries' at the At­las Per­form­ing Arts Cen­ter in Wash­ing­ton DC in 2008. The role of Im­pre­sario will be played by tenor Gabriel, whose per­for­mance cred­its in­clude Mr Arith­metic L'en­fant et les Sor­ti­leges, Re­men­da­do Car­men, and Tony West Side Sto­ry. The ri­val di­vas will be played by 2012 Mu­sic Fes­ti­val cham­pi­on so­pra­no Wil­son (Best Spir­i­tu­al, Best Op­er­at­ic Aria and Best So­pra­no So­lo), as Miss Hon­ey­well, while Mrs Cantwell will be sung by so­pra­no Dop­well, the Most Out­stand­ing Per­former 2004 Mu­sic Fes­ti­val and a re­cent grad­u­ate of the Man­hat­tan School of Mu­sic. Round­ing off the cast will be mez­zo-so­pra­no White (cham­pi­onship win­ner 2012 Mu­sic Fes­ti­val for Best Or­a­to­rio So­lo and Best Op­er­at­ic En­sem­ble) as Mrs Bourgh­e­sa. The role of Buf­fo will be played on al­ter­nate evenings by Daniel De­Cranie-Pierre (cham­pi­onship win­ner 2012 Mu­sic Fes­ti­val for Best Boys Vo­cal So­lo (16-19) and Best Re­li­gious Con­tem­po­rary So­lo (16-19), and Stephan Her­nan­dez, a grad­u­ate of the UTT Mu­sic pro­gramme who will soon be­gin his un­der­grad­u­ate train­ing at East­man School of Mu­sic.

Tick­ets cost $150 and can be pur­chased at:

The Gallery, 2nd Floor Long Cir­cu­lar Mall

The Knowl­edge Zone, The Falls at West Mall

Key Acad­e­my of Mu­sic, Alexan­dra Street, St Clair (678-8293)

All CMDFTT Young Artist Col­lec­tive Mem­bers

There will be no Box Of­fice at the per­for­mance lo­ca­tion. All tick­ets must be pur­chased in ad­vance.

Call 472-3157 or 728-6696

email: clas­si­cal­mu­sictt@gmail.com

Web site: www.cmdftt.org