What a wonderful experience! Over 20 shows completed across various venues in Scotland, reaching out to different primary schools and families from even further afield. It has really been a joy.
I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the company and all the team at Scottish Opera Education. I have learnt so many wonderful things that I can take with me and use throughout my training and in any future productions that I participate in.
Performing for children aged 5-8 has been a real treat, even though it feels like I have exhausted all my smiling muscles, and yet the experience has left me with my batteries feeling fully recharged and I now feel so full of life.
Every Time a new group came to watch we had to tell the story as if it was our first performance, to keep the magic alive and our energies high. It was interesting to see how each group interacted with the story and it was so rewarding to see their reactions, gleeful laughter and imaginative ideas on how to help us fix up the town. I have smelt shoes, broken baguettes, folded paper fortune tellers, banged sweeties and eventually solved the problem with my trusty glue stick.
This experience has also helped me to think on my feet and answer questions from the audience very fast. It reinforced how much I love performing and how important it is to make opera and classical music accessible and enjoyable for children and hopefully foster a love of these beautiful works. I think this is so important because we need to keep the art form fresh and inviting to new audiences and encourage them to become regular visitors to opera productions in the future.
I do hope that I can work more on opera for children and collaborate with other talented performers in order to tell these imaginative stories through spoken word, music, singing and actions.
I am looking forward to starting the rehearsals next week for Opera Britain’s production of Don Giovanni and I get to explore my vampish side for the role of Zerlina. This is such a contrast to the last few weeks and should also prove to be great fun. Next Saturday the 18th June the whole cast is putting on a fund raiser and we all get to perform some of our favourite songs, it should prove to be a fun evening.
