What are our goals?
We aim to provide a creative space where children can be children: exploring the world of music and the environment with curiosity and playfulness. We hope that children from state primary schools who take part in our workshops will start to feel more confident and be inspired to use their imagination and their voices with pride. By providing children with access to music and opera from an early age, we aim to also inspire children to engage with classical music outside of our workshops.
A recent study by Dr Elizabeth Marks (Bath University) ‘A Global Survey of Climate Anxiety in Children and Young People and the Links to Government Inaction’ showed that 75% of children and young people feel that the future is frightening. This does not mean that we should stop discussing climate change with our young people, rather we must find positive ways to empower them to use their voices and understand the world.
We also hope that these workshops will encourage the Government to increase provisions for music and drama within the state sector and make environmental studies part of the curriculum for younger children.
To book a GO workshop for your school or youth group or to find out more, get in touch.
Workshop format
- Welcome: children are introduced to the team and the aims for the day
- Warm Up: children take part in a nature-inspired physical and vocal warm up, using their bodies to impersonate different animals and bird calls.
- Setting the scene: children are presented with a setting from the opera and asked to try and create from the recycled materials they have brought with them and Green Opera’s supplies. In a recent workshop, this was a pair of fairy wings. They work in groups of 4-6.
- Creative learning: as they create their settings, children learn about the materials they have made the environments from, i.e. how much plastic goes to the landfill and how to recycle.
- Sharing: children show each other what they have made and feedback on what they found difficult.
- [Break]
- Story: children watch a 10-minute interactive performance based on the opera, where they learn about the problem facing the characters. The story is structured like a “choose your own adventure” where children have to make decisions for what happens next.
- Challenge: children are presented with a problem, i.e fairies living in a wood are having their home ruined by litter. What should we do? Teams work together to act out a solution and present to group leaders.
- Music: children learn a song from the opera the workshop is based on. This is normally one way we can solve a problem by teaching each other to express our thoughts.
- Performance: children perform the song to teachers/parents, supported by the workshop leaders.
- Questions: children are given time to ask questions and feedback. Learning aims from the start of the session are restated.
TOTAL: 2.5 hours
“The power of music”
Join Green Opera for an inspiring interactive workshop for 4-8 year olds where we explore the power of the sun and the power in everyone!
This session was presented as part of the Youth Climate Summit 2022.
“Green Opera goes into the woods!”
Join Green Opera on an interactive musical journey to save the fairy forest!
Green Opera, a charity with a vision for making music and drama in a way that is environmentally sustainable, presents a creative workshop adapted from their recent online production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe. The session, coordinated by Eleanor Burke (Artistic Director) and Nina Vinther (Environmental Officer) with help from some of the fairies, is divided between a short musical performance and a workshop. In the workshop, participants will be taught some of the music from the production and how to make their own fairy wings from recycled materials.
This session was presented as part of the Youth Climate Summit 2020.
GO is committed to the safety and well-being of all children, young people and vulnerable adults with whom it interacts. Please consult our Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy for more details.