Marionettes joins the worldwide Mozart mania

Performances of his works were earmarked for this year in all the countries and cities around the world that take classical music seriously: London, Moscow, New York, Havana, Sydney, Tokyo, Prague. Worldwide, Mozart’s music is replacing traditional fare on the airwaves.

The Marionettes Chorale is making sure that Port-of-Spain is not left out. In tribute to the great composer, they will be presenting Mainly Mozart at the Queen’s Hall on Friday July 7 at 8.15 pm and Saturday 8 at 7 pm. The programme will feature some of Mozart’s best known and loved music.

It will include staged solos, ensembles and choruses from his most popular operas — The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, Cosi fan Tutte — plus the more familiar and haunting Ave Verum and the lively and exciting Alleluia from Exultate Jubilate, as well as his Coronation Mass.

You will hear performances by Marionettes’ leading soloists and festival champions and winners: Vanessa Bushe (winner of five festival trophies including the adjudicator’s award for the Most Outstanding Vocalist), Tahirah Osborne (winner of two festival trophies), Feryal Qudourah (winner of three festival trophies including the adjudicator’s award for the Most Promising Vocalist), Jacqueline Smith and Nigel Floyd (past winners), and some exciting newcomers.

There will also be some instrumental numbers, such as a piano duet by Enrique Ali and his star student Justin Saloum, and a pan rendition by Johann Chuckaree, the outstanding young frontline Phase II tenor pan player, currently in Germany with the Trinidad and Tobago cultural contingent to the World Cup.

Mozart was a child prodigy, having composed his first symphony at the age of ten, and his first successful opera at the age of 12. In his 35 years he wrote some 50 symphonies, 20 operas and operettas, over 27 piano concertos, 27 string quartets and 40 violin concertos. He was supposed to have inspired composers of the ilk of Beethoven.

Mainly Mozart promises to be a wonderful evening of top-class performances of the music of one of the world’s greatest musicians of all times, by our own top-rate Marionettes Chorale and their outstanding soloists. Don’t miss it.

Tickets go on sale at the Queen’s Hall Box Office from Monday June 26 at 10 am, and are available from all members of the choir or call Joanne Mendes at 622-3821 to place your orders.