PUTNEY — Graeme King, of King Boatworks in Putney, has been hard at work in recent months building an ark.
No, King doesn't have the skinny on another great flood. As it happens, he's building the ark at the request of Opera Theatre of Weston co-producers Lise Messier and Nan Nall, who plan to put it to work as set design for their production of Noye's Fludde (Noah's Flood) by Benjamin Britten.
The company will celebrate the centennial of the British composer's birth with this exciting one-act opera. Performances are at the Paramount Theatre in Rutland Jan. 6, and at the Weston Playhouse Jan. 12 and 13. All public performances are at 2 p.m.
The parts of Noah, Noah's wife, and the voice of God will be played by Christopher Besch (Houston Grand Opera), Peggie Telscher (Chicago Lyric Opera) and Steve Stettler (Weston Playhouse Theatre Company's producing director), respectively.
Continuing OTW's mission of “bringing children to opera and opera to children,” the production adds local youngsters as Noah's sons and their wives, and a 24-animal chorus.
Young students also will participate in the orchestra, and more than 2,600 schoolchildren will attend special school matinee performances. Noye's Fludde marks the 13th annual Opera in Winter produced by Opera Theatre of Weston, a professional company of Opera America.
According to the King Racing website, Graeme King was born in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1947.
“He became fascinated with boats at the age of five while watching a newsreel of an eight-oared shell race. As Graeme tells the story, he went home immediately and built his first model of a rowing shell. This first effort would mark the beginning of a long and illustrious career as one of the most decorated and credible rowing shell designers in the world.
He's been living in Putney since the 1980's, and has seen his shells win numerous U.S. national championships in the collegiate and scholastic brackets since then.