Image – The cast in rehearsal for L’enfant et les sortilèges
Young Samling Academy singers are preparing for a première in Saltburn and Sage Gateshead
By David Whetstone, The Journal
Young people don’t do opera, do they? Well, yes they do and here, on the south bank of the Tyne, a busy technical rehearsal for an opera about a naughty boy is in full swing.
It’s all about getting the lights and sound right for when Samling Academy Opera’s production of L’enfant et les sortilèges (The Child and the Spells) premières on Tuesday.
Maurice Ravel’s 1926 opera is short, sweet and the perfect introduction to a form of entertainment tarnished in some people’s minds by accusations of elitism.
An opera whose characters include a broken cup, a tree frog, an armchair and a nightingale doesn’t sound as if it was intended for a well-heeled clique.
The most noticeable thing about this rehearsal at Sage Gateshead is that the young people on the Sage Two stage are having fun, singing brilliantly and with evident pleasure.
Read the rest of this preview piece on The Journal’s website
* L’enfant et les sortilèges premières at Saltburn Community Theatre on Tuesday, July 28 at 7.30pm (for tickets tel. 01287 624997 or visit saltburnarts.co.uk . Performances follow at Sage Gateshead on Thursday, July 30 and Friday, July 31, also at 7.30pm (Tickets: 0191 4434661 or www.sagegateshead.com) .*