CHILDREN ON THE OPERA STAGE

Once a year the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre organises an unusual event: together with professional opera singers and musicians, local schoolchildren are able to make their debut on the stage. In the 2011/12 season the theatre broke its own record by having 140 children participating with the chorus in a performance of Boris Godunov.

The Project ‘Children on the Opera Stage’ began in 2008 under the initiative of teachers at Perm’s School no. 9, and in particular the school’s music teacher, Elena Voronova. For many years she has taught Marina Krasilnikova’s programme ‘To the Heights of Musical Art’. In these lessons children learn about the masterpieces of classical music from around the world: Alexander Borodin’s opera Prince Igor, Peter Tchaikovsky’s operas Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades, George Bizet’s Carmen, Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida amongst others. In order that the subject material was remembered as an exciting adventure rather than dry academic rote learning, the school arranged for pupils to take part in dress rehearsals of operas such as Borodin’s Prince Igor, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Snow Maiden and Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov.

In 2012 School No. 9 was joined by schoolchildren from Schools no. 40, no. 83 and Gymnasium no. 6. Schoolchildren from a further twenty local schools have come to the theatre — for the time being — as spectators, whilst learning about the art of opera with their own teachers. The culmination of the project ‘Children on the Opera Stage’ in the 2012/2013 season was the performance of the opera The Tsar’s Bride by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.