What a brilliant summer we had delivering workshops for young people at schools and for local children’s charity Jigsaw4u!
In July we provided 10 primary schools across South London with 20 workshops reaching 486 young people overall. Schools were chosen in collaboration with the local Education Hubs in Merton, Wandsworth and Croydon who know the schools well and their existing music provision to ensure we reach young people who would most benefit from the activity.
The workshops are a fun, modern introduction to opera and Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love in particular with drama games, learning about what opera is and who is involved in making it, hearing a professional opera singer sing live in front of them, acting out the story of our modern adaptation of The Elixir of Love, learning to sing some of this classic opera both as a whole group and performing solos developing their singing and acting skills.
Meanwhile, our school holidays full day workshop at Jigsaw4u followed the format of our Opera Taster Workshops in the morning, while in the afternoon (after pizza of course!) the children wrote their own new song for one of the characters. They chose words that Nemorino might say, decided on the tune by choosing one they’d learnt earlier for a warm up game and changing the words to those they’d written as well as coming up with their own actions for the song. We finished the day with a short performance for parents and other Jigsaw4u staff. We performed the section of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love they’d learnt in the morning, warm up songs as well as the new song they’d written. You can see a short video Jigsaw4u made of the day on X at https://x.com/Jigsaw4u/status/1821872934526267511
Feedback included:
“The instructors were so energetic, enthusiastic and encouraged us amazingly! We had the best time and it has definitely turned a lot of heads towards the genre of opera.”
“Amazing! Making opera accessible and engaging for all the pupils!”
“Really changed many attitudes towards performing in front of others.”
“… it brought out the side of some children that I’ve not seen before. Some at the beginning were apprehensive and not overly excited yet at the end were singing solos!”
