Wednesday 1 September 2010

News from ENO Baylis

The next ENO Baylis 'Know the Show' event is due to take place next January, although a date has not yet been fixed.
To get an idea of the flavour of these events there are pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/eno-baylis/sets/72157624811202206/ and videos at http://www.youtube.com/englishnationalopera of the recent event in August. Click on the 'Know the Show August 2010' icon to see videos of the opera choruses we rehearsed and of the parallel events for children.
The choruses were from Gounod Faust, Handel Radamisto and Coronation Anthems , Puccini La Boheme and Madame Butterfly, and Mozart Don Giovanni. We were led by Richard Frostick (free-lance music animateur) and Martin Fitzpatrick (ENO head of music) with Ben Frost at the piano.
The ENO is about to introduce two schemes that will allow adults to attend specific opera performances whilst their children/grandchildren etc. are otherwise entertained. 'Opera Tots' is for pre-school children aged 6 months to 4 years in a professional cheche, and 'Opera Stars' is a fun introduction to opera for those aged 7 to 12.
There was also some talk of a 'Community Choir' being set up by ENO Baylis.

You can find information about all the ENO's participatory events at http://www.eno.org/explore.