Wick schoolchildren to take part in Scottish Opera touring show
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LOCAL children will be in fine voice this spring when they take part in Scottish Opera's latest touring production for schools.
Newton Park Primary School in Wick will be a venue for Warriors! The Emperor’s Incredible Army, which will see primary five, six and seven pupils rehearse and perform the opera, telling the tale of the terracotta warriors of Xian.
The event, on Monday, March 16, is part of a tour which takes in more than 50 schools across Scotland as part of the long-established Scottish Opera primary schools programme.
Warriors! tells the true story of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, who was determined to cheat death and rule over his country forever. Over many years Qin Shi Huang assembled an army of 8000 soldiers, horses and chariots to watch over him in the afterlife. The warriors were all armed to the teeth, but made entirely of clay.
The production is composed by Alan Penman with lyrics by Ross Stenhouse.
Pupils learn the words and songs in their own classrooms and are then helped by the Scottish Opera team to prepare for a performance in front of pupils, friends and family.
Teachers are provided with high-quality teaching resources, including a support pack to help introduce the music and related activities, an advance visit from a specialist choral musician and a day-long workshop with a team of experience arts education specialists and performers.
Teachers from schools that have already taken part agreed that the primary schools tour broadened the children’s cultural experiences, improved teamwork skills, increased cultural confidence as well as singing ability, and supported the aims of Curriculum for Excellence.
Warriors! was originally commissioned in 2015 in partnership with the five Scottish Confucius institutes based in the universities of Edinburgh, Strathclyde, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt and Aberdeen. In 2016, around 200 pupils from the Fangcaodi International School, Beijing, learnt the songs and performed the opera, which is mainly sung in English with some words in Mandarin.
The "pilot" visit was deemed such a success by the teachers that Scottish Opera was invited to return and work with a cast of pupils nearly four times larger.
In October 2019, three singers from Scottish Opera returned to China, and with around 200 pupils from the Kunming Fangcaodi International School learned and performed the company's second opera based on Chinese history, The Dragon of the Western Seas, which tells the story of Kunming’s most famous citizen, Admiral Zheng He.
Scottish Opera’s director of outreach and education, Jane Davidson, said: ‘Our annual primary schools tour is one of the longest established programmes at Scottish Opera – every year over 9000 children across Scotland take part in these performances, with many more thousands of friends and families coming to see them in action.
"We continue our work with the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools, bringing back Warriors! The Emperor’s Incredible Army, which tells an important story from China’s history. Pupils get to exercise their creative muscles and experience the added confidence and excitement that comes from performing for an audience of their peers, family and friends."
