Having an audience for the first time is always an energising experience for the cast and creative team but it was particularly true yesterday. The feedback during the show – which included lots of laughter and a few tears – really helped bring the show to life. The show really relies on the audience feeling present and included in the storytelling – not only does the audience applause for Lila’s firework display determine whether or not Lila and Lalchand live or die – but throughout the show there is so much gained from an audience joining in the fun and spontaneity of the storytelling. They are learning the secrets of firework-making just as Lila is.

We worked like fireworkmakers in Hull all week and I am enormously grateful to the amazing technical team at Hull Truck Theatre who helped us create the show. The show is full of images – jungles, mountains, lakes as well as the odd firework – and we were all working up to the eleventh hour to make these effects as beautiful as possible. And our wonderful cast of singers and puppeteers gave a brilliant first performance despite a very intensive final week of rehearsals. Last night it felt like we have a show which, like Lila, is ready to go out into the world…

John Fulljames: Firework Maker’s Daughter, Director

Click Lila to access exciting behind-the-scenes info, fun games and to meet the cast.

www.fireworkmaker.co.uk

David Bruce: Firework Maker’s Daughter, Composer

Click Lila to access exciting behind-the-scenes info, fun games and to meet the cast.

www.fireworkmaker.co.uk

I was fortunate to watch a session during the initial rehearsals of The Firework-Maker’s Daughter. It was great to have a peek behind the scenes.

I enjoyed meeting the director – John Fulljames, the music director – Geoffrey Patterson, singers – counter-tenor James Laing and tenor Amar Muchhala and the puppeteers from Indefinite Articles. Even from the early rehearsals it is clear how well the performers are working together as a team. There were some superb performances – I was particularly impressed by the pure voice of James Laing and the resonant sound of Amar Muchhala.

I love the wonderful visual effects throughout the show and found the puppetry techniques fascinating. The story of the opera is a fairy-tale and has a number of anthropomorphic animal moments. The way that the puppetry can transform a singer into an animal is a very innovative stage effect.

I think this show is a great way to introduce children to opera. I can’t wait to see the whole piece performed in the spring.

Zhen Wang is an intern from The Opera Group, who is studying Creative & Cultural Industries at King’s College London.

Click Lila to access exciting behind-the-scenes info, fun games and to meet the cast.

www.fireworkmaker.co.uk

Here is a short interview with John Fulljames talking about the piece.

Click Lila to access exciting behind-the-scenes info, fun games and to meet the cast.
www.fireworkmaker.co.uk

Here’s a link to a review of the show from Metro France (in French, of course!) and a trailer from our good friends at the Charelet.

Metro France: Street Scene Review

Street Scene will run in Paris until the 31st January.

James Laing

The event gave an insight into the development of the opera as we prepare to start rehearsals in the New Year. It was also another chance for us to tell our funders about the work they’re kindly supporting and to excite more people into helping us bring this captivating new work to life!

Composer David Bruce spoke about his progress on the music – now very nearly finished! – before John Fulljames and designer Dick Bird revealed the inspiration behind their ideas for the set and costumes.

Puppet artists Steve Tiplady and Sally Todd from Indefinite Articles showed us how they conjure fairy-tale worlds into being by using just a sheet of cloth, an overhead projector, a little paper and some watercolour paints. Steve and Sally, who will perform in the show itself, magically made young audience volunteers Oliver and Phoebe change shape and disappear before our very eyes!

Counter-tenor James Laing – who will play the love-sick elephant Hamlet, among other characters – and accordionist Ian Watson rounded things off with their delicate performance of Hamlet’s lament as he yearns for the love of his life, the lady elephant Frangipani, far away in the zoo across the city.

The evening drew to a close with gingerbread and cup-cakes, lots of happy chatter – and one or two grown-up drinks.

For more details of the production and where you can catch it next year – either in the UK or the USA! – click here

If you would like to support our new writing for young people and make your own contribution to this very special project, please contact our fundraising manager Rebecca Redclift (rebeccaredclift@theoperagroup.co.uk) to find out how you can help.

Co-produced by The Opera Group and Opera North in association with ROH2 and Watford Palace Theatre
Co-commissioned by The Opera Group and ROH2
Orchestral Partner – CHROMA (UK) and Metropolis Ensemble (USA)

SoundWave & Rosehill’s Opera Studio hosted international opera director Frederic Wake-Walker on Sunday 28 October. Accompanied by Jane-Eve Straughton from The Opera Group they led an inspiring workshop designed to take acting to new heights.

Hansel & Gretel’s Christmas Feast is a Christmas production that will be performed at Rosehill Theatre on 16 December. It’s a panto-meets-Puccini production with fantastical characters weaving a tale of magic and mystery through three operatic scenes taken from La Boheme, Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel and Debussy’s Pelleas and Melisande.

The cast for Hansel & Gretel’s Christmas Feast are a mix of local performers aged 8+ from across Cumbria alongside are a variety of professional and semi-professional singers and is being put together by a team of local professionals including Jilly Jarman from BlueJam, Penrith, Hannah Reid from Giocoso, Wigton and Emma Bayliss who is designing the show.

The Opera Studio is all about creating high quality training opportunities for anyone wanting to discover, explore and refine their opera voice. Frederic’s workshop formed a vital part of the journey towards performing excellence on the 16 December. Many of the cast have no experience of acting and movement and would class themselves as singers only – so there was apprehension as well as excitement leading up to the workshop. On the day, 27 people squeezed into Wigton Methodist Church hall to take part and a hubbub of chatter descended as everyone shared their nervousness and interest about what would happen next. Freddie quickly settled the group into a place of focussed concentration as he led them through a series of exercises that built characterful movement and confidence to improvise around different scenarios in the show. By the end, the performers were all buzzing with ideas to take forward in their roles, brimming with enthusiasm, and providing excellent feedback for the day.

Frederic Wake-Walker says:
“I really enjoyed working with such a diverse and energised group. I’m sure it will be a wonderful show.”

Jane-Eve Straughton, the executive director of The Opera Group, originally hails from Cumbria.
“The North West isn’t an area we currently tour to, and having family still based in Workington, I was naturally pleased and surprised to hear about the Opera Studio. Being able to get involved so directly straight away with people on the ground has been a really useful way of understanding the quality of the work that’s being achieved here in Cumbria and where we might fit in.”

David Wilson Opera Studio participant and performer in the Christmas show says:
“I thought it was excellent. It certainly brought out the creativity in people. It was a relaxed atmosphere and got the group communicating when many of us hadn’t actually met before. Freddie demonstrated how to use different postures and this affected the feeling of what I’m trying to do when I’m on stage. That was really useful and the improvisations we all shared at the end were brilliant – really impressive!”

SoundWave Opera Studio in partnership with Rosehill and BlueJam Arts

www.soundwave.org.uk
www.rosehilltheatre.co.uk

This radical reworking of Alban Berg’s unfinished opera will transport audiences to the smoky jazz clubs of the Deep South against the backdrop of the civil rights movement.

American Lulu will open at the Bregenzer Festspiele in August 2013, followed by a UK tour culminating in September at the Young Vic.