Skellig 24 November 2008 – 29 November 2008

Skellig is an enchanting contemporary opera of David Almond’s award-winning novel of the same name, commissioned by The Sage Gateshead. With music by innovative composer Tod Machover and libretto by David Almond himself, Skellig is directed by Braham Murray, designed by Rae Smith with choreography by Mark Bruce. It is performed by a stellar cast including Omar Ebrahim, Paul Keohone and Sophie Daneman, with Northern Sinfonia conducted by Garry Walker.

Visit The Sage Gateshead website.

Tickets are available now from The Sage Gateshead ticket office: 0191 443 4661 or click here to book online.

Monday, monday……

You’ve guessed it, it’s monday. Today is the first time we’ve met the principles…hopefully we’ll learn from them as they are obviously very experienced at all this jazz…and we’re still learning this business. Most of us have been rehearsing since the summer. We had a very fun week running around our very own, very private, private school and learnt many funny games and warm-ups.

  Now we’re rehearsing in Gateshead townhall, so everything is a bit off balance to everything we previously learnt. However, we’re getting the hang of it all!

Anna and Harriet

First day with the full cast

Hi everyone

I’m Sharon and I’m the Youth Chorus Leader. It’s Monday and our first rehearsal day with the whole cast. Up until now the chorus have been rehearsing by themselves with me and the choreographer Mark and his assistant Caroline. The chorus have done really well to remember everything we did at our residential in the summer (well, most of it) so now we are trying things out on the set. We’ve just broken for lunch and a well deserved rest. This afternoon we’ll be putting together the first two scenes with the principals – arghh! It will probably take a bit of getting used to – working with real people rather than a CD – I hope it goes OK.

Bye for now.

Sharon xoxo