Knight Crew - Youth opera in Sussex
PUBLISHED: 01:15 01 April 2010 | UPDATED: 17:00 20 February 2013

Louis Gower, 18, a student at BHASVIC, Brighton. "I’m in Glyndebourne Youth Opera but this is very different. It’s been an amazing experience. I’m so glad I’ve been given the opportunity to do this and to meet people who come from all over Sussex."
In September, Glyndebourne began a big search for new talent in Sussex. They were looking for singers for Knight Crew, a brand new youth opera. Gareth Malone, of BBC TV's The Choir, was chorus master...

Pictures: David Illman
Imagine being a teenage singer with dreams of performing on the big stage. Then imagine the excitement when one of the worlds leading opera houses said they were looking for people to appear in their latest performance and the results would appear on national television.
This is just what happened in Sussex this year. Glyndebourne went in search of young people for the chorus of Knight Crew, a brand-new opera specially commissioned for the community and young people.
The opera is a fresh take on the Arthurian legend based on a book of the same name by Brighton-based novelist Nicky Singer. The music was by Julian Philips, Glyndebournes first Composer-in-Residence.

Work began in 2007 when the piece was commissioned to be a full-length opera for six professional singers, youth and community participants and a full orchestra of professional and young players.
Katie Tearle, Head of Education at Glyndebourne, said that in keeping with the King Arthur theme they developed The Round Table Project, a programme of 20 participation workshops to recruit young people and the community to be in the opera as well as for a separate programme of work-related learning linked to a new Creative and Media Diploma focused on Knight Crew.
Katie said that rehearsals started in January and the young performers had given up an evening and every Saturday for weeks as well as most of their half-term holidays plus the week before the performance.
She said: Evenings and weekends have been given up to this project with a huge amount of support from parents and carers, teachers and youth workers enabling young people to develop skills and be part of what we hope will be a life-changing experience.
One of the rules of the Round Table was to seek after wonders and with this project we have certainly taken up the challenge of the quest.
David Pickard, the General Director of Glyndebourne said in his programme notes that the same amount of care had been taken on the community opera as on any other new commission.
He said: This is a production in which over 120 of the artists taking part are young people and adults drawn from our local community, and in all respects it has been treated with the same care and attention which any other new commission would receive on the Glyndebourne stage.
The planning of this immense project and the process of getting from first idea to first night is, of course, a thrilling and sometimes daunting experience.
Part of the challenge of the piece was the involvement of professionals with young inexperienced performers.
Bass Robert Winslade Anderson, one of the six professional opera singers involved, who played Mordec, the brother of Art (the King Arthur character), said it had been a learning experience on both sides.
I see myself sometimes when I look at the young people. They have limitless energy which has to be channelled.
I got an insight into who I was trying to be from them. I was trying to find the way to move to walk in the shoes of my character. In the rehearsals I observed the kids and I thought thats what I need to do and it worked.
We learn from them and they learn from us. It would be great if one of them was inspired to take up singing as a career after this.
Chorus master Gareth Malone and Youth Chorus Workshop Director Karen Gillingham auditioned more than 450 young people and many women to form the 65-strong Knight Crew chorus and the 15-strong Mothers Chorus.
Gareth, who is best known for his BAFTA-winning BBC series The Choir trained the singers through the rehearsal process. He was unable to give interviews because of contractual obligations connected with the filming.
On the first night the accomplished performance was greeted with rapturous applause. Much of that applause came from people who were seeing members of their family on this world-famous stage. The reviews from the professional critics showed that the applause was truly well-deserved.
The whole exercise was filmed for a three-part BBC2 documentary Gareth Goes to Glyndebourne which will be shown in June.
Reviews
What an inspiring evening they all pass with flying colours with boundless commitment, with intensity of expression James Inverne, Editor, The Gramophone
For a community opera this is an extraordinarily accomplished piece of work its certainly a major achievement Michael Church, music critic for The Independent
Festival dates
The 2010 Glyndebourne Festival runs from 20th May to 29th August 2010 with productions of Benjamin Brittens Billy Budd, WA Mozarts Cos fan tutte, Verdis Macbeth, Humperdincks Hnsel und Gretel, Stravinskys The Rakes Progress and WA Mozarts Don Giovanni.
Telephone booking is open from 10am until 6pm, seven days a week, on 01273 813813 or online at www.glyndebourne.com
Community members involved
Knight Crew chorus
Vasil Angelov
Keely Bitout
Stefan Bodle
Claire Campbell
Amy Chapman
Billy Charlesworth
Gaile Consalacion
Sophie Couch
Bront Coyne
Elsie Edgar
Natalie English
Billy Eriksson
Ryan Funnell
George Gasson
Rory Giles
Louis Gower
Sian Griffiths
Florence Grover
Lydia Hague
Max Hale
Desi Hayward
Jessica Jackson
Chris Johnston
Amelia Jolley
Kai Kinsey
Chloe Laskey
Rebecca Leggett
Owen Lewis
Toby Lockyer
Tendai Mtambara
Ellen Muriel
Anu Ogunmefun
Georgina Pashler
Alice Pashley
Jonathan Raggett
Amelia Read
Alexander Rohmat
Mickaela Sands
Freya Sansom
Lewis Sargent
Marie-Elaine Sexton
Olly Southwell
Josh Speer
Jonathan Stephens
Lloyd Thomas
Rebecca Tutt
Emma Walker
Eden Webber
Liberty Weller
George Willard
Damon Willer
Nikiya Willis-Brown
Danny chorus
Rory Afrizal Hayes
Oliver Beard
Jack Callaghan
James Carpin
Charlie Carr
Ha
rvey Cash
Jacob Hopkins
Sam Jacks
Joseph Robinson
John Sawney
Louis Watkins
Brogan Webber
Adam Wiggins
Mothers chorus
Maxine Anderson
Sally Carr
Cate Couch
Amanda Foley
Sian Griffiths
Gemma Howard-Jones
Sarah Hunter
Jessica-Ann Jenner
Debbie King
Ruth Loughton
Hannah Lovelock
Judy Mackerras
Karen Murray
Penny Raeside
Alison Read
Belinda Sharp
Catriona Shepard
Rachel Taylor
Emma Walker
Freya Wynn-Jones
Youth players
Alexandra May Hill
Jaya Hanley
Evelyn Eastwood
Bethan Morgan-Williams
Jenni Pirault
Juliette Gregg
Corey Wickens
Miriam Verghese
Polly Richey
Adam Pickard
Sewek Gasicrek
Oliver Pickard
Louis Bickler
Duke Quinton
Natalie Bird
Ashley Beauchamp
Benjamin King
Henry Melbourne
Perry Webber
Sam Hiscox
Rachel Parry-Ridout
Georgia King
James Turbett
Alexei Watkins
Bryony Prior
Harvey Hall
Lucy Sullivan
Luther John Vine
Sam Byard
Amy Schofield
Tom Heath
Alexander Evans
Fabian Edwards
Katherine Miles
Rosie Bergonzi
Schools and colleges involved
Bexhill College
BHASVIC
Blatchington Mill School
Brighton and Hove High School
Brighton College
Burgess Hill School for Girls
Cardinal Newman School
Caterham School
Causeway School
Chailey School
Dorothy Stringer School
Eastbourne Technology College
Falmer High School
Hailsham Community College
Hampton School
Hurstpierpoint College
Lancing College
Moira House Girls School
Our Lady of Sion School
Park College
Patcham High School
Priory School
Ringmer Community College
Rye College
Seaford Head Lower School
St Bedes Prep School
St Bedes Senior School
Steyning Grammar School
Sussex Downs College
Sussex Downs EVOC College
The Grove School
The Skinners School
Tideway School
Uckfield Community College
Varndean College
William Parker and Helenswood Federal Sixth
William Parker Sports College
Worth School
Worthing High School