Barlows' Cunning Little Vixen: An Evaluation of the European Opera Centre's First Educational Project

This is an evaluation of a week-long project that the European Opera Centre conducted with Year Five children at a Liverpool school. This was a child-led project that involved children experiencing a range of disciplines: Art and Design; Drama and Movement; Music (Composition and Performance); and Production. They chose which discipline to focus on whilst they worked on developing a short opera. This was performed at the end of the week to the school, families and visitors. The project was based on the world’s first hour-long animated opera: a cartoon film of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen commissioned by BBC Television and co-produced with Opus Arte and Los Angeles Opera in co-operation with the European Opera Centre. The story reflects the cycle of life, the passing of seasons, death and rebirth and is populated with a cast of animals and insects