Art by Brian Lies (Copyright Brian Lies)
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The North Cambridge Family Opera Company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been working long and hard for their upcoming production of Rain Dance. This will be the US premier of the young people’s opera created by librettist, Donald Sturrock (official Roald Dahl biographer) and award-winning composer, Stuart Hancock. I am honoured to say that this wonderfully witty creation was inspired by one of my short stories, The Hare Who Would Not Be King, originally published in Spider, part of the Cricket Magazine Group in the US. Above is some of the artwork by children’s writer and illustrator, Brian Lies. I especially love Brian’s hats.
Rain Dance was originally commissioned for performance in 2010 by W11 Children’s Opera in London. As such, the cast comprised entirely young people from London schools. North Cambridge has a different approach, putting on shows that involve all family members – kids and adults together. And the reason I know they have all been working so very hard is because there is a PREVIEW of the performance on their website. If you click HERE you can not only download the score and read the synopsis, but hear an entire performance scene by scene. Please listen. You truly will not be disappointed. Stuart Hancock’s score is captivating, and Donald Sturrock’s libretto is very funny. And it is all about failing rains and lion-style political corruption down at the waterhole (based on an original Akamba traditional story). But if you live in MA and can make an actual performance, here are the details:
Directed by David Bass and Kathy Lindsay
Choreography by Rachel Zimmerman
Performances:
Saturdays March 29 and April 5, at 3:00pm and 7:00pm
Sundays March 30 and April 6, at 1:00pm and 5:00pm
AT:
The Peabody School (Directions, map, parking)
70 Rindge Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140
Tish Farrell 
Congratulations Tish. How good it must feel to enjoy the interpretation of your work by others. Really liked the illustration by Lies.
Yes, thank you, Shimon, it’s really exciting when something you have made sparks off someone else’s creativity, and in ways you would not have thought of; or on the scale you could not have imagined. And the thing I most love about the opera is that one rather short story has played a part in spurring so many people, especially young ones, to go out and perform.
Love the story, Tish, and what a joy it must be to be the inspiration for this work. 🙂
Thanks, Jo. I love the idea of one thing leading to another – a pass-the-parcel of creative impulse, but instead of the parcel getting smaller, it gets bigger…
hi Tish,
I read your amazon site:
Wonderful production!! Congratulation to you Tish for writing this wonderful story!
Thank you, Tiny. Your comments are much appreciated.
Sounds like beautiful piece of work. The images are special and the theme feels resonant.