Playground Opera is Longborough Festival Opera's project to bring opera into schools. During 2021, our small-scale production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel visited 14 state schools across the surrounding counties, reaching over 1,400 children aged 5-14.
Designed for outdoor playground performances, this vibrant production was a Covid-proof way to bring back opera – music, storytelling, dance and drama – into schools and re-engage children in the social, cultural and health benefits of singing together.
In each school, a workshop used singing, composing, dancing and stagecraft to introduce the opera, complemented by resources for teachers to provide further ways to engage the children.
Workshops were followed by a 45-minute interactive performance of the opera. The music was been abridged and arranged specially for school audiences and performed by a team of trained Emerging Artists and versatile instrumentalists.
