This year, arts education professioonals Europe-wide have been busy at work putting together a wide variety of projects and programmes aimed at the widest audiences possible. Here, a few RESEO members look back at the projects they were the most proud of in 2017.
Deutsche Oper am Rhein
The Operamakers programme
What happens when a city has to deal with a sudden catastrophe such as a flood?
Flut (“Flood”) premiered at Theater Duisburg on 14 November 2017. Performed by professionals of Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the work was created by around 20 children and young adults over the course of a year-long project.
The libretto group wrote a story about a family living in their hometown facing the consequences of an environmental catastrophe, the young composers developed an orchestra score for 9 musicians, 4 singers and a youth choir with the help of a professional composer and young directors created a stage setting and decided on the costumes.
The new work was performed for an audience of local school pupils and will be staged in Düsseldorf before Christmas. It will hopefully return to the repertoire next season.
Musical Director: Patrick Francis Chestnut
Stage Director and staging-teacher: Volker Böhm
Project coordination and idea: Anna-Mareike Vohn
Stage-setting: Jan Hugenroth
Children choir leader: Sabina López Miguez
Dramaturgue: Dr. Hella Bartnig
Composition teacher: David Graham
Libretto teacher: Sascha Pranschke
Contact: Anna-Mareike Vohn, Head of Education, Deutsche Oper am Rhein
Photo © Susanne Diesner
Theater Basel
Murmeli, a musical theatre production for babies aged 0 – 18 months
Murmeli (Swiss German for Murmeltier = Marmot) is a production especially for babies up to the age of 18 months, their parents, grandparents and godparents. Inside a soft, protective tent in the Main Stage foyer artists and audiences set off together for a first experience of opera in the mountains, in buzzing mountain meadows, on windy peaks and in quiet valleys.
The magic of the mountain world is told through the human voice, singing and movement (using extended vocal techniques), attuned to the world of small children in their intensity and relaxation, their melody and use of sound, their melody and repetition.
Musical creator and director: Christian Zehnder
Production: Ania Michaelis
More information here
Companhia de Música Teatral
The young audiences production NOAH
A highlight of 2017 for Companhia de Música Teatral was the young audiences production NOAH, their most recent creation.
An appeal to collective consciousness, the production is based on creative work carried out with the CMT-Kids and mirrors the “voice” of each of the children and teenagers involved in the project, emanating directly from their talents and interests in a process of dialogue with the composer Paulo Maria Rodrigues.
Jean-Marc Biskup
The “Viens à l’opéra” programme
“Three years ago In Morocco I created the programme « Viens à l’Opéra » in partnership with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Morocco and the French schools of Rabat, Casablanca and Kenitra. In 2017, the programme took a look at operetta for the first time with a production of The Merry Widow.
Twenty-five classes participated in the project, enabling nearly 800 children to explore operetta and attend the performance at the Mohamed V Theater in Rabat in April. The programme involved two school visits, one with a singer from the cast and the other a tour of the backstage and set and costume workshops, as well as a performance of The Merry Widow aimed at school audiences.
Opera de Tenerife
A successful year’s worth of education productions
“We have enjoyed huge success in the 2017 season with the staging of our educational titles. The adaptation for family audiences of Les contes d’Hoffmann (Jacques Offenbach) conducted by Rubén Díez and directed by Raúl Vázquez, and I Capuletti e I Montecchi (Vincenzo Bellini) conducted by Matteo Pagliari, directed by Silvia Paoli, and interpreted by the young artists of our Opera (e)Studio (directed by Giulio Zappa), have registered a marked rise in audience, especially in the younger age range.”
Our complete program, formative activities and calls for auditions for Opera (e)Studio can be found at www.auditoriodetenerife.com
Cie Minute Papillon
The young audiences production Tout Neuf !
2017 was a fulfilling year for Cie Minute Papillon with the creation of Tout Neuf !, a wordless lyrical poem for the over 2s.
This unique venture enabled us to come into contact with children from all over the world, override language barriers and visit our friends and colleagues from RESEO!
“Tout Neuf !” – Teaser 2017 from Cie Minute Papillon on Vimeo.
What if music were a way to listen to the world?
Water rushes, wind blows, fire crackles, footsteps echo on the ground … The world around us shakes, vibrates and sings, as does the incredible musical fruit at the heart of this production. Little by little three singer-musicians open it, feel it, taste it and play with it in order to (re)live first experiences in a shared moment.
Tout Neuf ! is a moment of visual and musical poetry for the whole family, an awakening to life inspired by Mozart, Bach, Landi and Rossini.
Opéra national de Paris
Into the Woods
Into the Woods brings together thirteen young singers and dancers as miniature beings in a modular setting straight out of a picture book. Video synergises with the stage set to add some extra magic and narrative elements.
“They had been married for a long time and had not managed to produce a single child”. What if the story began like that? With their humorous inversion of fairytale codes, Stephen Sondheim and James Lepine created a musical both exciting and modern in which the destinies of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Jack of Beanstalk fame are interwoven and brought to life by a company of young artists.
Performances:
All audiences
Saturday 16 December 2017 at 8pm
Tuesday 19 December 2017 at 8pm
Friday, December 22, 2017 at 8pm
Saturday 23 December 2017 at 2pm
Schools
Monday 18 December 2017 at 2pm
Tuesday 19 December 2017 at 2pm
Thursday 21 December 2017 at 2pm
Photo © Yves Petit