Opera for Youth: repertoire ideas and new productions
(February 2009)
Ideas for developing young people’s interest in opera range from new stageworks with children’s roles, to theatrical projects with youth choir.Tod Machover
Skellig (2008)
Tod Machover’s new children’s opera, Skellig, based on the award-winning novel by David Almond, was premiered to acclaim at The Sage in Gateshead in November. When a young boy discovers a celestial being – part ethereal, part earthy - in his garage, he undertakes a journey of discovery about the fragility of life, in a work which proved “the medium more than suitable for the latest storytelling for young people” (Glasgow Herald).
“Tod Machover has set Skellig to an 90-minute score that blends sophisticated 360-degree electronics and conventional instruments, resourceful choral effects and attractive neoclassical tunes. Done with a light touch, it's music that captures the tale's eerie essence...while being accessible and fun...”
The Times
Orlando Gough
On the Rim of the World (2008-09)
Opera companies throughout the UK have collaborated on a new choral theatre work by Orlando Gough, On the Rim of the World, due for premiere at Glyndebourne on 5 March. Gough, who is director of The Shout and specialises in large-scale community choral projects, has worked with poet Jehane Markham to create a 25-minute work for voices and chamber orchestra involving children and parents in singing and drama. The work is co-commissioned with English Touring Opera, ENO Baylis, Glyndebourne, Music Platform, Opera North, Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera and WNO MAX.
Frank Schwemmer
Robin Hood (2007)
The Komische Oper in Berlin scored a hit with the premiere in November of Frank Schwemmer’s adventure opera Robin Hood in a production by Andreas Homoki. The Deutsche Presse Agentur review described how “Schwemmer has composed thoroughly contemporary music which challenges children, yet nevertheless appeals to them emotionally.”
"The team of librettist Michael Frowin and composer Frank Schwemmer has a nose for up-to-date subjects, which is excellent for a children’s opera. Robin Hood is a mixture of reality and fiction, gags and seriousness, suitable for children. Episodes from the old familiar legend of Robin Hood are catapulted into a simple living room and assume a dramatically convincing life of their own… Everyone has the greatest fun.” Morgenpost
Pierangelo Valtinoni
Pinocchio (2001, rev.2006)
Another success at the Komische Oper has been Pierangelo Valtinoni’s operatic version of the Pinocchio story. Originally staged in Italian in 2001, a revised two-act German version was presented in Berlin in 2006, with revivals in 2008 and 2009, amounting to 26 performances. Last year also brought new productions in Hamburg and Vicenza. This magical one-hour opera is ideal both for children’s opera programmes and for pre-Christmas entertainments.
“The production was an immediate success with the audience (10 minutes of cheers, applause and stamping of feet at the end)… In his gentle music Valtinoni follows a little the great masters of musical fairy tales: there is much of Maurice Ravel in the sparkling piano introduction played against the pizzicato strings…” Berliner Zeitung
Detlev Glanert
The Three Riddles (2002/03)
Detlev Glanert’s two-act fairytale opera The Three Riddles successfully combines child performers with professional singers and children’s chorus, and is intended for audiences over the age of eight, both young and old. The story, related to Gozzi’s Turandot, is as the composer describes “one of the greatest coming-of-age stories in our cultural history, one involving the discovery of another world, an alien world, the discovery of emotions, of the unknown, told in a poetic and symbolic fashion.” Over the past five years The Three Riddles has enjoyed 80 performances in 10 productions in Germany, Italy and France.
Leonard Bernstein
Mass (1971)
Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, which he conceived as “a theatre piece for singers, players and dancers”, has in recent years become a favourite stagework for community projects. Celebrations of Bernstein’s 90th birth year included October performances with the Baltimore Symphony conducted by Marin Alsop, Jubilant Sykes as the Celebrant, and hosts of young performers in Baltimore and in New York’s Carnegie Hall and Washington Heights.
“Some pieces that seem trendy at their birth soon fade away. But the essence and achievement of Bernstein’s “Mass” have become clearer over time… There is nothing like young performers to refresh older pieces. And the performance that Marin Alsop conducted involved hundreds of young, inspired and inspiring performers.”
New York Times
The Boosey & Hawkes catalogue also includes such classics as Britten’s Noyes Fludde and The Little Sweep, Krása’s Brundibár, and Maxwell Davies’s The Two Fiddlers and The Rainbow, together with recent operas such as John Lunn’s Misper and Zoë, and music theatre pieces by Susan Kander.
For full information visit www.boosey.com/opera
Photo: Komische Oper / Monika Rittershaus
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