Operas

The Cape Festival places music theatre for young people at the heart of its first year's activities. Today, most South African school children have had some contact with opera and oratorio, and many dream of growing up to become singers. African culture brings stories to life through song and dance, making opera an ideal form of cultural communication in today's South Africa, where vocal talent is outstanding.

Noye's Fludde

Benjamin Britten's charming children's opera tells the story of Noah's Ark and the Great Flood. A cast and orchestra of adults and children joins together to narrate an age-old tale through song, dance, and music. With its ultimate message of hope, this is a story that is relevant to audiences today throughout the world. Europe meets the Rainbow Nation in this contemporary retelling with a uniquely African twist.

The Cape Festival's 2010 pilot workshops in Nyanga, Darling and Imizamu Yethu were run in collaboration with primary schools and music schools to bring new techniques in music education and music theatre from German (UdK Berlin) and Austrian (Wiener Taschenoper) music institutions.

Further important partners in this project include South Africa's Creative Voices, run in collaboration with London's Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and the Darling Music Experience. The Cape Festival will use the network of its Music Education Forum to draw in music educators and students to participate in the workshops for a maximum multiplier effect.

A House Full of Music

Wiener Taschenoper's award-winning "A House Full of Music" introduces young children to the music of John Cage through a light-hearted look at the role of sound and noise in today's acoustic environment. A man with a crisis, a helpful fairy, a magic cupboard, a grand piano, and an armory of noise-making objects form the basis for this endearing musical adventure.

Feedback

Innovative Belgian opera company Transparant's "Feedback" is a lively interaction through which children come into playful contact with electronic music, live improvisation, mixed media and abstract creative arts. Children enter a new and magical sound world where they can make music with the most likely and unlikely of tools.