UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 09 DECEMBER 2022
New Opera Outreach Officer at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Rose Johnson explains more about her role to welcome everyone and anyone to becoming part of an opera audience.
My name is Rose and I’m the new Opera Outreach Officer. I am so excited to have been chosen for this newly-created role funded by the Linbury Trust. Our aim is to make opera accessible to anyone and everyone and diversify the audiences that attend our opera performances.
We are already taking a big step towards making this happen by visiting primary schools in Birmingham and Sandwell with scenes from our various operas. Each school will experience a 30-minute concert featuring our fantastic Vocal and Operatic students.
The children aged between eight and 11 years old will be introduced to opera in four different languages, and they will have the chance to ask RBC students and Head of the Vocal Department Paul Wingfield any questions about opera that they would like answered.
Looking ahead to our Spring Opera, ‘The Cunning Little Vixen’ by Janáček, we have ambitious plans to bring the opera to the public with pop-up performances around Birmingham, taking opera to people who may have never seen any before!
We will also be transforming an industrial space in Digbeth into a unique opera venue for the duration of the show. Look out for some opera singing woodland creatures popping up in the New Year!
Summer is also going to be jam-packed for our students and local schools around Birmingham. Focusing our attention on an accessible family performance of Dove’s ‘The Enchanted Pig’. We are planning a series of school workshops focusing on understanding the Romanian fairy-tale that the opera is based on, culminating in a school performance and some more relaxed performances for all to enjoy.
I am so excited to be in this role over the next three years and looking forward to seeing these plans materialise into some amazing projects that welcome everyone and anyone to becoming part of an opera audience.
Rose Johnson
Pictured: Rose Johnson, 2021 Spring Opera