Glyndebourne Education set to stage its biggest community project so far

Knight Crew, a new Glyndebourne Community Opera commission, will see Glyndebourne's first composer-in-residence Julian Philips team up with youth chorus leader Gareth Malone and director John Fulljames.

Together, they will stage the adaptation of children's author Nicky Singer's novel, itself based on the King Arthur legend.

While Malone has led numerous youth and community projects for Glyndebourne since 2000, this will be his first opera. As such, BBC 2 are set to document the evolution of the project from its early rehearsals to the final four performances on 3-6 March 2010, which will be filmed and then broadcast by the channel.

The story will be given a 'gritty', contemporary urban setting, making it appealing and accessible to younger newcomers to the genre. While six professional singers will assume the main roles, a cast of 60 young performers will join them - as will a 'Mothers Chorus' made up of local adults.

Down in the pit, the ensemble will also be comprised of both professional players and musicians from the local community. The score looks set to be appropriately fresh, too, focusing heavily on sax, brass and percussion.

Many performers and musicians have been found through a thorough recruitment programme.

Twenty 'skills workshops' were set up through Glyndebourne's Round Table Project - which itself supports the delivery of a new work-related qualification, the Creative and Media Diploma - to provide assistance for young people on the run-up to the Knight Crew auditions.

Around 450 young people from surrounding communities, both urban and rural, took part in the workshops leading up to the final auditions, where prospective performers were joined by members of Glyndebourne's Youth Opera.

A cast has now been chosen.

Glyndebourne Education was established in 1986 with a view to commissioning brand new works. Although Knight Crew will be its biggest outreach production so far, 5,000 young people are involved every year in its various projects based in numerous locations around the country.

www.knightcrewopera.com

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