Sutton Music Trust are creative in our thinking, and always find new ways to engage children and young people. Through our relationship with the Royal Opera House, we were able to offer young singers in Sutton the opportunity to learn from a theatre director!
On Wednesday 19th June, Sutton welcomed Emma Doherty, a director from the Royal Opera House to deliver ‘Storytelling through Opera’ workshops at two local schools. Ninety children at Victor Seymour Infants School and sixty children at St. Elphege’s Catholic Junior School enjoyed an hour-long workshop, focusing on a director’s approach to Opera and how the music of an opera is used to develop staging ideas.
The workshops introduced three characters from The Magic Flute (Mozart) and their fantastical journey through the trials of fire and water. During this interactive workshop, the children embodied the characters to journey through some of the landscapes of the opera before hunting out their own narratives from the music and creating still scenes in small groups. Through the workshop, the children explored stagecraft, ensemble skills and creative thinking.
What a fantastic day! The workshops really captured the children’s imagination, and it has been wonderful to see them explore their creativity through the music of The Magic Flute. I hope that these workshops have inspired the children to continue their musical journey with Sutton Music Trust.
These workshops were offered by ‘Create & Sing’, part of the National Schools Programme, from the Royal Opera House. These programmes are available across England, free and flexible for teachers and schools to implement with online lesson plans and resources available at any time. The National Schools programme is dedicated to the development of pupil and teacher confidence and aims to celebrate the power of creativity in the classroom and beyond.
Want to find out more?
For more information about the National Schools Programme, click here.
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These workshops were offered fully subsidised by the ‘Create & Sing’ project at the Royal Opera House. Many thanks to them for supporting singing in Sutton!
