2007 

A House on the Moon 

The groups involved included primary schools, a secondary school and adult college, a special school, a theatre group, a group of adults that came through the local Mencap Society, some Dhol drummers, and a group of Bangra dancers. These groups had full ownership of their material, devising every aspect of their scenes, including songs, narrative and words. Another strand to the project was animated film. Greek artist Babis Alexiadis worked with some secondary school students to make animation, and also created an animated design world to provide visual contexts for the different scenes. The technical team included Matt Haskins as lighting designer, and Ellen Dowell as costume designer. The full-length piece was performed twice at the Grand on June 20^th to large and extremely enthusiastic audiences.

A documentary film following both the process and the final performances is available by emailing the Education department.

Residencies in Special Schools

At the heart of ETO’s work in the community is our engagement with special schools across the country. This spring we are taking full-scale residencies to 4 schools: Moorfield School in Preston, Oakes Park in Sheffield, Tuke School in London and Hall School in Norwich. Two of these schools are new to us, and two provide opportunities for continuing relationships. In each school we will create, over 3 to 5 days, a new piece of music-theatre culminating in performance. Singers, directors, composers, players and designers are all involved. The work is backed up by ETO’s CD-Rom The Labyrinth.

Generous funding from the Equitable Charitable Trust makes this work possible.

Ice

In Spring 2006 ETO performed  Janacek’s Jenufa. The opera offers an extraordinary opportunity to bring really accessible and exciting opera into secondary schools, with its superb music and rich characters, and its provoking themes of teenage pregnancy and parental betrayal. We created a 70-minute new version of the opera for 12 schools in London, Doncaster, Sheffield, Durham, Cheltenham, Lincoln and Cambridge. Ice was performed by three superb singers, an actor (from Wonderful Beast Theatre Company), a pianist and a percussionist: 8 smaller roles as well as the chorus wereplayed by 30 students in each school. Filmmaker Annis Joslin will create films with the schools, which will form the visual world of the piece. The performance, Ice, was performed in 12 sechools and seen by over 3,000 students. 

The project is supported by a very generous grant from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

Opera in a Day - Tosca secondary school workshops

This season we will be working in new areas of the country – Poole, Salisbury and Kendal. As with our secondary school Falstaff project last autumn, we will work with about 30 students for a day, introducing the music, the characters and the story of Tosca creatively and engagingly. The sessions will involve the students practically, including elements of singing, composition, and acting. At the end of the day the resulting piece of devised music theatre will be performed to other members of the school. Similar workshops are being planned for Pagliacci, a new and exciting collaboration with Pegasus Opera.

One Breath was a fully staged and full-length community opera that took place in June 2005 in Sheffield and Doncaster. 250 young people and adults, disabled and able-bodied and aged 8 to 84, worked with 2 composers, Rachel Leach and Helen Chadwick, and director Tim Yealland, to create a celebration of the life and death of Mary Queen of Scots. The project culminated in two hugely successful performances at the Doncaster Dome and outside at Manor Lodge in Sheffield, the site where Mary was imprisoned for 11 years. Professional singers Carol Smith and Andrew Slater worked alongside professional players, including leading percussion ensemble Three Strange Angels. The designer was Jan Flamank. The project was in part a collaboration with Doncaster Arts, and involved local musicians Janet Wood and Andrew Nimmo. The text was a mixture of authentic 16th century verse and prose, and newly devised writing.

The project was generously funded by Youth Music, the Performing Rights Society, Sheffield Council, Abbey National, Sheffield Town Trust and the RM Burton Foundation.

‘It was absolutely superb!!! It allowed students to be involved in something completely outside their experience (and staff and parents too!) It was great to be part of such a positive community event. Our students loved it! It was so good to see them mixing so freely with students from mainstream schools. They gained in self-confidence, self-esteem and self-discipline – priceless!! Thank you!! It was a privilege to be part of this project. We shall never forget it.’ Liz Howie, Oakes Park Special School

‘It was wonderful and very accessible. Really high quality music and production, much more so than anything we have been involved in before. It was wonderful watching the children ‘blossom’. They gained enormously in self-esteem and confidence. Their singing voices developed remarkably as did their performance skills. They hadn’t expected to like it, being ‘opera’, but they really enjoyed it. It was a great event for all the community.’ Jane French, St Oswald’s Primary

The (Little) Magic Flute Schools workshops

The shows and workshops that formed ETO’s tour of The (Little) Magic Flute last spring was such a success that in the autumn we presented this gripping adventure story once more. In a specially prepared edition designed for both adults and children, The (Little) Magic Flute (nominated for Best Opera in the Irish Times Theatre Awards of 2001) was fast, funny and touching. Singers and musicians from the show also took specially devised workshops to 95 primary and special schools across the country throughout the autumn of 2005. Accompanied by a giant and all-devouring snake they introduced the students to the fantastical story of the opera, to its amazing cast of characters, and to its superb music project was a teacher’s pack and a CD

Quotes from The (Little) Magic Flute workshops:

‘This was the first time opera had been performed at school – I was amazed at the children’s response. A totally new experience and the knowledge that it’s ‘ok’ for boys to sing.’ Alice Barber, Edgware Junior School

‘Excellent. The musicians showed huge commitment and the standard of their work was extremely high. THANK YOU! For the hard work and dedication of your talented cast, who were fantastic on stage, and then so good in their rapport with a very large group of children too.’ Claire Hoskins, Childs Hill School

‘It was a really, really brilliant show. I would see it 10 times over if I was allowed.’ Jadie, aged 9, Redwood Junior

‘I felt I was in heaven.’ Ben, aged 7 ½, Edleston Primary

‘It was even better than the cinema!’ Emily, Prestwood Junior School

Falstaff secondary school workshops

In our Autumn 2005 season, we went to seven secondary schools in Lincoln, Stonehouse, Stroud, Cambridge and Ipswich. In each school we worked with about 30 students for a whole day, introducing the music, the characters and the story of the opera in interesting and creative ways. The work involved the students practically with elements of singing, composition, and acting, as well as dance. At the end of the day, a piece of devised music theatre was performed to other students. Andrew Slater played Falstaff, alongside composer Rachel Leach, bassoonist Lizzie Elliott, and director Tim Yealland.

‘It was an excellent day. The students were very clearly taken on a journey and I was amazed by the final outcome. They are excited about opera and are willing to try new things.’ Andrew Hird, North Kesteven School

‘My opinion of opera has completely changed. Before I would of never seen an opera, but now I am a definite fan.’ James, aged 16, North Kesteven School

‘Oi Falstaff!’ / ‘Oi Alcina!’

Thanks to a very generous 3-year grant from the Equitable Charitable Trust ETO have continued to deliver on-stage workshops for students with special needs. Oi Falstaff! and Oi Alcina! gave the students a truly theatrical experience, in which they met and heard characters from ETO’s productions of either Verdi’s Falstaff or Handel’s Alcina. The pupils heard arias from the opera, sung by artists in costume, joined in songs, created dances, and also met a player – double-bassist Sarah Halpin – from the ETO orchestra. They also explored technical aspects of stage production, changing lighting states. Amanda Echelaz, Louise Poole, Julie Unwin, Andrew Slater and Chris Ovenden all took part in the workshops, which took place in Cambridge, Exeter, High Wycombe and Cheltenham.

‘It was excellent. It was very varied and the pupils were kept and interested. You gave all the participants opportunities to join in and shine if they wanted to.’ Margaret Dean, Alfriston School

‘I enjoyed playing on the double bass with Sarah. I enjoyed the dancing and the singing best of all. I liked everyone I met and I liked being the animals with my partners.’ Zara, Alfriston School

Orpheus in Tuke

In the Spring of 2005 ETO devised with Andrew Hinton, the arts coordinator at Tuke School, an innovative project involving every student in Tuke – a secondary special school in Peckham, South London. We collaborated with both the Phiharmonia Orchestra and with Sonic Arts Network to deliver the project, which included elements of music, drama, film, dance and music technology. Each class in the school took one aspect of a retelling of the Orpheus myth, and developed work over the course of a few months (16 days in all), culminating in a performance. ETO artists included composer Dominic Harlan, director Sebastian Basckiewicz, singers Serena Kay and Matthew Sharp, and filmmaker Annis Joslin. Composer Duncan Chapman composed the soundtrack for the film.

The project was funded by Creative Partnerships London South.

2004

40 Hares and a Cunning Little Vixen - 

English Touring Opera took Janácek's opera A Cunning Little Vixen on tour in the autumn of 2004. Specially devised and designed by ETO, together with acclaimed theatre company Wonderful Beast, 40 Hares and a Cunning Little Vixen is an interactive performance that introduces the worlds of theatre and opera in a completely new and magical way.

2 singers, 2 actors and a musician, along with a writer, director and designer created a performance lasting 75 minutes, which was taken directly into 30 primary schools, 
playing to over 3000 children. Sarah Lenton's specially designed cartoon strip, as well as Bert Gill's teachers' pack, went with the project. This was a fantastic opportunity for children aged 7 to 11 to encounter superb professional singing and acting for perhaps the first time. 

Hey Figaro!

Here we devised a series of 4 on-stage workshops for children with special needs. The students spent time on the set of The Marriage of Figaro, and met and heard three characters in costume, as well as members of the orchestra. They joined in songs and dances, and experienced the atmosphere of a working theatre, operating and changing the lights.

Our kids had an absolutely brilliant time. The team was brilliant. It was amazing for the kids to have such a rich experience.
Liz West, Deputy Head, Green Hedges School, Cambridge

Britten's Dream

Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream is in many ways a perfect introduction to opera. Workshops for 14 secondary, primary and special schools took place across the country: theatre, music and design were used to creatively explore Britten's masterpiece. Composer Rachel Leach helped the students wrote new songs, while the magical environment of the piece was recreated with the help of designer Andrea Carr, and director Tim Yealland worked on the themes of transformation and midsummer madness. Singers James Laing and Jessica Summers sang the central roles of Oberon and Titania. At the end of the day the students performed their own new musical and dramatic response to the opera.

2003

From Handel to Britten

For tertiary students and adults we ran a series of very successful masterclasses led by singers Jonathan Peter Kenny and Andrew Slater, and musician and theorbo player Matthew Wadsworth. The sessions served as introductions to British opera, from the baroque practice of Handel, to the twentieth century operatic techniques of Britten. Amateur adult singers and university music students also performed in these masterclasses.

Turning to Britten

Alongside ETOs' tour of Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw, ETO ran day-long schools workshops for over 360 secondary pupils (aged 14-17) in schools across the country, led by director Ruth Naylor-Smith, musician Dominic Harlan and singer Eva Kallberg. Britten's opera provided a superb introduction to great music theatre, through its compelling ghost story, and its accessible musical language. The project linked into curriculum subjects of English, History, Music and Drama, and developed composition, singing and performance skills. All the students subsequently saw ETO's main production.

The Screw Turns, Canterbury Festival

During ETO's autumn tour visit to Canterbury, we staged a 10-day residency in three secondary schools (Archbishop's School, Chaucer Technology College, and Canterbury High School) based around Britten's The Turn of the Screw. A composer, director, 3 singers and 3 players from ETO worked with 30 children aged 15-17 in each school to create a new piece of music theatre using the themes of Britten's opera as the starting-point. The final 75 minute integrated work, The Screw Turns, was performed in public at Shirley Hall, Canterbury, as part of the 2003 Canterbury Festival, and was hugely successful.

Superb. The quality of the musical experience was something that the pupils rarely encounter. Also the intensity of the project inspired them - the fact that they could be totally absorbed in it over several days.
Mark Cheesman, Head of Music, Chaucer Technology College.

Die Fledermaus Children's Shows

Over 1,000 children from Years 5, 6 and 7 (aged 9-12) saw ETO's performances at The Broadway Theatre, Catford, and The Bullion Room, Hackney. ETO's full cast of 14 singers performed a specially devised version of Die Fledermaus, directed by Felix Barrett (based on Bill Bankes-Jones' highly successful production for ETO). For many of these children - from numerous cultural and social backgrounds - it was a first experience of opera. Every child received Sarah Lenton's cartoon synopsis of the show introducing the characters and plot.

I thought it would be boring, but it was really funny. At first the singing sounded strange, but I soon got used to it. My favourite singer was the maid.
Pupil, aged 11, Hackney

Ariadne in Cambridge and Sheffield

Continuing ETO's projects integrating mainstream students with students with special needs, this season we ran workshops in Cambridge and Sheffield based on the myth of Ariadne. Each 4-day residency involved over 30 children (aged 12-17).

ETO's experienced teams of workshop leaders, singers and players worked with the children to create new performances using the myth of Ariadne and the minotaur as a starting point. Music and songs were composed alongside dynamic movement work to tell this ancient story in gripping and persuasive ways. The resulting work was performed in front of audiences in the exciting new space of St Mary's Centre, Sheffield, and in Sawston College's studio theatre.

Supported by The Equitable Charitable Trust as part of a 3-year project.

Our pupils were quite overwhelmed by what they achieved . It was a real privilege to have [them] work with such talented professionals.
Mrs M. J. A. Cannie, Principal of Sawston Village College

The Bat Dances

In the Spring of 2003 250 primary school children from schools in Sheffield, York and Brighton took part in a day-long creative workshop introducing them to Strauss' Die Fledermaus, and to opera in general. Working with a director, designer and musician, pupils explored the themes of the opera. Children aged 9 to 11 spent a day composing songs, creating dances and making masks based on the events of the opera. The workshop culminated in a performance of their own Viennese masked ball in front of classmates and teachers, before the children attended ETO's evening performance of Die Fledermaus at their local theatre.

I really really liked doing the opera. I thought the dancing was really good fun. I loved the piano playing. It was brilliant. I liked making the masks. I am wearing it to the theatre. I was nervous performing but I wanted to do it again.
Hope, pupil, Lord Deramore's Primary School, York