Photo: © Raymond Verber
The KIRANA children’s opera project, composed by RESEO member Ruben Zahra, was presented at the Opéra-Théâtre de Metz Métropole (France) on Saturday 2nd December 2017.
The project was designed in order to connect children with professional artists and create a multi-media production. Children were introduced to a variety of new music techniques including prepared piano and minimalism, light painting, contemporary dance, shadow puppetry and digital animation.
The music workshops in Metz were conducted by the composer Ruben Zahra with the assistance of Maltese pianist Tricia Dawn Williams and local French percussionist Pierre Tomassi. The dance workshops were conducted by Timothée Bouloy and Aurélie Barré, two professional dancers from the corps de ballet, with the latter taking the role of narrator during the performance.
In 2017, KIRANA was presented in Horsens (Denmark) at the Holmboe i Horsens festival; in Pafos (Cyprus) as part of the culture programme for Pafos 2017 European Capital of Culture; in Parramatta (Sydney, Australia) at Riverside Theatres and in Brno (Czech Republic) as part of the Moravian Autumn Festival organised by the Filharmonie-Brno.
The workshops empower and stimulate children to create their own material, shaping the performance and ensuring that each version of KIRANA is unique. After the successful performance of KIRANA, music teacher Boris Ignatovic declared: “ … This work will help our students grow, mature and open up to art. After spending a whole week with KIRANA they returned to the school transformed and excited about the experience. Personally, the exploration of new techniques gave me many ideas to develop my pedagogy further.”
Contact: info@soundscapes.com.mt