ABSTRACT
Children’s opera Beyond the Wall provides an excellent case study for exploring how re-imagining the creative, theoretical, and conceptual approach to children’s opera can enhance the emotional engagement of young people. Focusing on three key areas – relevance, appeal and comprehension – the importance of each is analysed in the context of opera for young people, primarily ages 4–13 (Kindergarten to year 6 in Australia). It was found that some of the key components to the success of a child-centred approach was the understanding of potent, emotive psychological undercurrents of effective stories for child audiences, as well as the ability to develop and continually stimulate children’s emotional identification with the main character as they progress through the narrative landscape. Necessitating an insightful construction of the protagonist’s universe within the libretto and the forces of antagonism they encounter, it also requires thoughtful reflection on how the musical score reinvents, develops and heightens the emotional intention and dramatic impact of the text and story themes. The successful workshop staging of Beyond the Wall within a culture that has very few originally devised operatic works for young audiences, challenges the prevailing view that children are incapable of engagement with the heightened emotional world of opera.
