Local opera company brings The Ring to schools

Richard Wagner's nineteenth-century Ring Cycle, an opera that usually takes 15 hours to present over four separate performances, is being compressed into a 90-minute presentation for 120 schoolchildren by Pooles Park school's resident opera company English Pocket Opera.

Formed in 1993, English Pocket Opera delivers specialist music workshops in for children and young people in opera composition and performance. Last year, the company worked with local schools to create Dream, based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Purcell's Fairy Queen; Carmen, inspired by Bizet's opera about gypsies and toreadors; and The Park, a collaboration with Betty Layward School in Hackney about their jounreys to school through Clissold Park.

EPOC's ambitious new production will involve four local schools and aims to compress the complicated story of Norse gods, water-nymphs, Valkyries and mortals, all in competition for the ring that allows the owner to rule the world. The opera usually features extravagant staging and a larger than usual orchestra.

This new version will be a "promenade" version of the opera, staged in just 90 minutes, using sets, props and costumes deisgned by the children in collaboration with Central St Martins.

EPOC are based on the top floor of Pooles Park primary school, and the company believes music has the power to transform young lives. Other projects coming up in 2011 include a community project I Sing of Islington based on compositions about the borough, and Opera Blocks, an ongoing interactive project introducing young people to opera. Take a look at some of their past works here!

The Ring will be performed at Pooles Park in March. Work begins in January,  and places are still available. Contact EPOC for further details on 020 7281 4015 or email office@epoc.co.