Opera
The Fairy Queen with St Laurence school in Wiltshire, performed at Wiltshire Music Centre
The Moon Hares
From January 2020-21, the OAE are touring a brand new community opera about a village run with a strict set of rules and regulations. At night the villagers are under strict curfew and the streets are patrolled. Nobody goes out at night or looks up at the stars. The Mayor fiercely upholds the curfew, but the older villagers know that the village is full of magic and wonder! Click here for more information
Agreed
Agreed was a brand new opera premiered on Glyndebourne’s main stage in March 2019 featuring our musicians, a cast of professional singers, and a chorus drawn from the local community and Glyndebourne Youth Opera.
It was brought to life by a multi-genre score composed by Howard Moody and included elements of classical, world and jazz music. The chorus of around eighty locally auditioned singers were an active, shaping force of the drama, expressing the emotional effects of separation and political divide. Their music is woven together and led by five professional singers, the Orchestra and players from our Ann and Peter Law Experience scheme, who played alongside local young talented instrumentalists.
St Laurence Residency
In June 2018 we returned to St Laurence School in Bradford on Avon for our annual opera project. Working with 270 students across our week-long residency, they created dance routines to movements from Purcell’s Fairy Queen and dramatic scenes which became part of our KS3 Fairy Queen opera. Some students also performed the role of Puck from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. At the end of a busy week, all the different components came together We were joined by Kirsty Hopkins (soprano), Robert Gildon (baritone) and a chamber ensemble from the Orchestra.
King Arthur
In 2016, we piloted a new immersive opera for KS1 and KS2 pupils based on Purcell’s King Arthur which received great acclaim from both teachers and pupils.
Agreed on film
Watch the two films below for an introduction to Agreed, then the whole opera in full.
