In the lead up to the first, live screening of the Royal Opera House production of Puccini’s Turandot in the Park in July, students from 3 local schools prepared a special performance for an audience of thousands. Inspired by the current restoration of our Victorian Theatre, which hosted the leading operas of the day, the Big Sing Workshops helped fine tune the vocal skills of secondary pupils from three Haringey schools – St Thomas More Catholic School, Harris Academy, Tottenham and Heartlands High School.

Working with professional musician and singer Juwon Ogunbe students were introduced to opera as a way of storytelling. Exploring themes within Turandot groups created responses to the opera thinking about narrative and genres of music. Students from the 3 schools were invited to perform Nessun Dorma  together before the live screening.

We went along to one of the sessions to find out a bit more about the project.