(10/03/2008)
Shining Star, Liam O’Rourke to Perform
at the Rotary Club of Ellicottville’s Starz for Youth Ball

Liam is one of fifteen area residents who advanced to the October25 final show of Cattaraugus County’s Got Talent. All fifteen contestants have a chance to win cash prizes with their talents. They will also participate in other activities, such as a masquerade ball and painting the city red.

SINGERS OF ALL AGES NEEDED FOR AN ECUMENICAL CHORUS
AMAHL AND
THE NIGHT VISITORS
(Starring Liam O’Rourke)

All you need is a singing voice to be part of this very special presentation!

The Talented Kathryn Black is directing a one act classic entitled Amahl and the Night Visitors. The Christmas Classic will be presented at the Holy Name of Mary Church in Ellicottville on November 30th at 2:00 - 3:00 PM.

Kathryn needs local singers for an ecumenical chorus of all ages to sing the four part harmony of the shepherds and shepherdesses. No auditions are necessary; simply show up at rehearsal this coming Monday night October 6 between 5:30 - 6:30 at St. Mary’s; all you need is a singing voice to be part of this very special presentation!
Liam O’Rourke and John Burrell to star in “Amahl and the Night Visitors” Liam O’Rourke will be playing the role of Amahl. He is the son of Kevin and Terese O’Rourke of Ellicottville. While our Town Supervisor, John Burrell has the honor of playing one of the three Kings, a role Katherine usually reserves for professional stage singers.

Amahl and the Night Visitors is an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti. It was first performed on 24 December 1951 in New York City, at the NBC studios, where it was broadcast on television as the debut production of the Hallmark Hall of Fame. It was the first opera specifically composed for television in America.

Amahl and the Night Visitors” tells a simple tale of a physically challenged boy named Amahl and his mother. They live in poverty among shepherds. One night, the Three Kings, on their star-led way to Bethlehem to pay homage to the newborn Christ Child, stop for shelter at the rude hut where Amahl and his mother live. They are given hospitality and are entertained by the neighboring shepherds. The Mother envies the gold and other splendid gifts being brought to this child the Kings do not even know. In the early dawn, she steals some of the gold and is caught. When she explains to the Kings that she needs it for her starving child she is forgiven. Then they tell her about their Child and the new light He will bring into the world and the kingdom He will build. The poor widow repents and returns the gold. Amahl, in a gesture of innocent generosity, offers his crutch – his most prized possession – as a gift to the Child. In doing so, he is miraculously cured of his lameness, and he is allowed to accompany the Kings to Bethlehem to give thanks to the Christ Child.