In the 2019 season we opened our entire programme to schools: 600 seats at dress rehearsals were filled by schoolchildren; and 1,000 reached through workshops, school visits and lectures.
Schools joined in with an interactive exploration of Wagner’s Das Rheingold. As well as looking at the music and story of the original piece, the children worked together creatively to compose, rewrite and direct each other in their own versions of the opera, before performing them in front of their peers. This approach offered participants, many of whom had had little or no previous experience of opera, an exciting taste of the passion and power of these dramatic stories.
“The costumes were amazing, the long flowing dresses, suits and work clothes. The acting was wonderful too, going well with the singing.” - Margaret, aged 11
“I thought it was going to be boring and I’ll fall asleep. But it was fun and joyful.” - Kayte, aged 10
“I will come back and bring my family. The most memorable bit was the loud singing that projected out to the whole building.” - Luke, aged 11
“At our school governors’ meeting last night, the praises of Longborough and its education programme took up a large part of the meeting…even the teachers had not seen an opera before and all of them are now thrilled and looking into more operas on the internet. One of the teachers told me that it was best workshop she had ever seen in our school.”
