The children of 5C, St Francis, are having a well deserved break after a hectic run of rehearsals and performances. On Friday morning we welcomed the ‘villagers’ from Avenues for a joint rehearsal in our hall. That same afternoon we continued rehearsing in one of the classrooms (as the hall was being prepared for the school Christmas fair) and had to be careful when doing our ‘stick moves’ in the confined space!
On Sunday evening we were on duty again, starring in the ‘Opera Unwrapped for Christmas’ concert in the Assembly House, alongside some really amazing opera singers! The children performed as though their lives depended on it and were rewarded by sitting right at the front, for the rest of the first half, to watch Jan Capinski, Yvonne Howard, Gethin Lewis and Christopher Turner sing some of our favourite arias (ably accompanied by Libby Burgess on the piano) – the children were literally blown away by the power of the singing! A truly remarkable evening!
Only a few hours later, on the Monday morning, we were back together with our peers from the three other schools for our second joint rehearsal. Great fun, especially when the soldiers were ‘controlling’ the moves of the villagers. We even managed to get the children out for a quick break between heavy showers! Things are really starting to come together and we just about managed to get through the last chorus where all 4 groups are singing different words and melodies. Exciting times!
Wishing Genevieve and the ‘team’ a very happy and peaceful Christmas and looking forward to the last stretch of our journey in the New Year.
