From the Youth Opera Project, a ‘Robin Hood’ by and for the Younger Ages

Cover image: Scene from Seattle Opera’s youth opera for families, Robin Hood (Photo: Jacob Lucas)

Seattle Opera’s Youth Opera Project reached full flower after seven years of steady growth, with three performances of Robin Hood at Cornish Playhouse last weekend. The music for the opera was composed by Ben Moore, the libretto by Kelley O’Rourke, and the work was commissioned by and premiered at Glimmerglass Opera Festival last summer.

For those performances, there were a few adult roles to go with what was intentionally a youth project, and for Seattle Opera’s performances Moore and O’Rourke graciously agreed to make the lead roles of Robin Hood and the sheriff gender neutral and suitable for young voices, and to orchestrate for a chamber group what had originally been a piano score. The production includes 82 children aged seven to eighteen; all were paid for by registration fees and generous donors so no child has been turned away for lack of funds.

Friday night’s performance showed the professionalism and care with which this production had been mounted. The chamber orchestra comprised flute, cello, double bass, percussion, and piano. Moore’s choice of a flute was masterly. Right from the start it gave the sense of forest birdsong. His music was perfectly suited to the production, heralding and mirroring the action, tuneful, warm and charming without being cloying, and the musicians under conductor Meg Stohlmann were careful never to drown out the young singers.

Andrea Bush’s successfully simple set of impressionist tree trunks with a couple of low branches below and cutouts of leafy canopy above, coupled with Thorn Michaels’ effective lighting enhanced the production and the whole, stage-directed by Kelly Kitchens, made excellent use of the stage, the large numbers on stage and the many entrances and exits.

The singers of all ages gave admirable performances, acting and singing with verve and spirit. One thing only was lacking and would have made a big difference. While one could hear each singing voice clearly, the words were mostly inaudible, so that it was not easy to gather the details of the story theme. Supertitles would have enhanced the entire production.

“It’s all part of our efforts to maintain our commitment to train and teach young artists,” says Barbara Lynne Jamison, Director of Public Programs and Partnerships for Seattle Opera, speaking about the production. Her title encompasses not just the Youth Opera Project, which has worked with Seattle Public Theater for the past seven years, but Seattle Opera Academy, an intensive summer workshop which aims to train youngsters aged 17-22, serious about singing, in all the aspects of such a career, partnered with Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra at Marrowstone; plus the Teen Vocal Studio which does the same for high schoolers year round in Seattle.

“We use master teachers, some from local universities, even main stage artists who present master classes,” says Jamison. It’s similar to the highly regarded Seattle Opera Young Artists Program which worked with singers in their 20s on the cusp of careers, but which has been in abeyance now for three years. “We’re just starting younger,” says Jamison.

Robin Hood’s three performances sold out within hours, but theater logistics made it impossible to add more performances. Next year may be different. Plans are already in train and will be announced later this spring.

“We are positioning ourselves to provide a lot more continuing education” for adults as well as children, says Jamison. “We’ve identified this as a hungry city which wants the arts, almost more than we can handle. This is not just exposing kids to an art form. Not at all. We want people of all ages to understand the power the arts can have in our lives and opera is only one aspect of that. That’s what we are trying to do. Opera is something we can all engage in, not only certain people.”

She is deeply satisfied that the Youth Opera Project is widely diverse in every way: ages, ethnicity, backgrounds, incomes, from in and outside the city. Older kids are a little surprised to find themselves in class with little ones, the little ones are in awe of the older ones who often end up mentoring them, “They learn from each other,” says Jamison, while parent carpools and friendships build as they wait for their kids. “We call it the ‘halo’ effect,” she says.