Abu Dhabi school girls talk about playing the disabled boy Amahl in NSO’s production of Amahl and the Night Visitor

The National Symphony Orchestra's first opera production in the capital this weekend will have schoolchildren taking the lead, along with international opera performers, in the classic one-act Amahl and the Night Visitors.

Lameece Bouarroudj, right, as Amahl in the National Symphony Orchestra’s production of Amahl and the Night Visitors. Courtesy NSO

When 12-year-old schoolgirl Lameece Bouarroudj takes the stage tonight for the National Symphony Orchestra's production of Amahl and the Night Visitors, she'll be playing a boy. The pupil from Abu Dhabi's Brighton College will be performing alongside opera singers and a student ballet troupe.

The one-act opera by the Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti, which debuted in 1951 in New York, was originally written for American tele­vision. It’s the story of a poor disabled boy (Amahl) and his mother, who are visited by the Three Kings and their errand boy on their way to Bethlehem. The orchestra will be led by the American conductor Ron Malanga.

Bouarroudj shares the role of Amahl with 13-year-old Daniella Stewart from The British School Al Khubairat, who will take over on the second night.

“I have to act like a boy, dance like one, too,” says Bouarroudj, a soprano who has been singing since the age of 5. “I’ve walked with a crutch before, so that wasn’t a problem, but being a boy was different. Also, there are so many different sides to Amahl – anger, happiness and sadness, it has been fun to portray. But putting on the costume does take time. I have to wear a wig and make-up to look masculine. My nose is made bigger. I really do look like a guy.”

Stewart, who began rehearsing for the role in November, says she enjoys singing the song Don't Cry, Mother Dear, when Amahl is pacifying his distraught mother who does not want him to beg on the streets.

“It’s a part where he is calming his mum and telling her that it will all be OK,” says Stewart. “The drama that goes with it is great.”

The part of Amahl’s mother will be played by the award-winning American soprano Gretchen Hewitt, who has performed the part in several productions in the United States. The London-based bass-baritone Thomas Isherwood, a recipient of the 2013 Alexander Young Prize at the Royal Northern College of Music, will play King Balthazar; the theatre performer and tenor Carlos Paez will take on the role of the errand boy; the Abu Dhabi-­based tenor Domenico Cannizzaro will play King Kaspar, while Dubai-based baritone, Jerzy Olsson-Nagorski, a regular performer with the Emirates Opera Project, will take on the role of King Melchior.

• Amahl and the Night Visitors is at 7.30pm on Thursday, January 22, and at 4.30pm and 7.30pm on Friday, January 23. Tickets are priced from Dh125 for adults and Dh75 for students. The charity concert is being held in support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the eradication of polio. For tickets, go to www.timeouttickets.com or email [e-mail]