Our mission is to inspire a lifelong love for opera by making it fun, accessible, and empowering for young performers. Through creativity, teamwork, and professional guidance, we nurture talent, build confidence, and create magical performances that celebrate the artistry of children. Our aim is to give our local children and young people, with so little opportunity elsewhere in schools, the chance to discover their own abilities and to develop their musical and performance skills, thus engendering a lifelong love of the performance arts. This is what lies at the heart of Jubilee Opera’s ethos.
Making the Music
Here is a description of our guiding principles when working with young people on productions of opera. We are inspired particularly by Benjamin Britten, Malcolm Williamson, Richard Rodney Bennett, Hans Krasa and many others to make work that is totally participatory without compromising on quality, in the hope that it will be ‘useful to the living’ and strong in the realisation that music and theatre can illuminate and transcend our everyday lives.
The stage is a place where there are no rules, regulations, governments and targets. The stage belongs to the people on it, where they are free to express themselves and free to dream.
We’re not interested in getting it right.
We’re not interested in accepting the status quo.
We’re not interested in being well behaved.
We’re not interested in a speedy efficient work ethic.
We are interested in questions.
We are interested in people’s personal response to a situation.
We are interested in trying things again and again and enjoying their difference.
We are interested in self-discipline, focus and concentration.
What do we do?
We go and meet the performers on their own terms
We bring our own inner child and enjoyment of play to the rehearsals. We are silly and unselfconscious, and we encourage it in everyone. We work on a level playing field. Our work is not competitive, but constructive, aiming to realise each child’s potential.
We work as and with professionals
We use professional terminology, act as role models and bring an uncompromising quality to our own work while instilling a professional attitude in each performer. We don’t talk down to them; we push them to go beyond their comfort zone.
We give ownership
We ask questions, let the performer discover things for themselves instead of giving instruction.
“How did it feel? Why did you do that?” This allows them to access their own feelings, be creative, self-critical and to make their performances their own.
We give confidence
We believe the performer can do anything and we do everything in our power to plant that belief in them. We are sensitive to the fragile nature of being exposed on stage as well as the difficult situations that young people find themselves in life. We take great care to make everyone feel integral and important to the production.
How do we do it?
Connecting music and movement
We ask the performers to ‘make the music’ with their movements and intentions. Often we ask the performers to make strong rhythmic gestures connected to the music, which stimulate performance and give greater clarity to the ‘story’ they are telling.
Clarity of purpose
We break down each scene into a clear and distinct set of instructions. This eradicates the anxiety of ‘what to do next’ and enables the performer to concentrate on modes of expression and intention for themselves and those around them.
Freedom within a structure
Within this clear set of instructions and the strong connection to the music there must always be room for each performer to respond individually and creatively to any given moment. This allows the natural chaos to live and breathe and eradicates self-consciousness.
Ownership
We give each performer a clear character and role (even within a chorus) and encourage them to input their ideas into design, costume, props, sets and all the various workings of the stage.
Working together
We avoid hierarchy and emphasise the importance of relying on and helping each other on stage, through listening to and supporting each other.
Philosophy
We encourage independent thinking, a healthy scepticism for authority and a strong sense of community. The easy option should not be taken simply because it is the easiest option.
Material
We work with material that contains strong, relevant themes with a context that is very different for the everyday. The material must be fantastical or historical, etc. in order to stretch the already fertile imagination of the young performers.
Technique
In the process of rehearsing, we engage specialist professionals to develop and work on the technical skills of singing, stage craft, musicality and movement.
Ideally
We look for a good spread of ages, an all-inclusive mix from any background, of all abilities, each with their own personal aspirations, who want to operate outside a school environment, performing in spaces that are exciting and alluring.
Above all, we guide children and young people towards confidence arising from a strong sense of self-worth, towards the joy of achievement and towards to a lifelong love of music and the performing arts.