Sawston’s Uprising Opera wins Award

In March this year pupils joined the youth chorus in a production of the new Jonathan Dove opera Uprising at Saffron Hall. It was a tremendous production and so we are delighted to hear that it has won an Ivor award – the Best Community and Participation Composition at the Ivors Classical Awards.

Ellie Lovewell, now in Year 10, recalls the experience of taking part in this project: ‘On 15 and 16 of March, we performed in Uprising, an opera commissioned by Jim Potter and composed by Jonathan Dove. The opera follows the story of Lola Green, a girl who learns about climate change at school and is inspired to make a change. It shows her disagreements with her family, especially her mother Angela, whose job it is to have the local forest cut down. At first we rehearsed after school at Sawston Village College. Here, we were given a copy of the opera. Even without the scenes we weren’t in, it was extremely thick! I remember thinking at the start, ‘There’s no way we’ll ever memorise all that!’ We got stuck in immediately, listening to audio tracks and putting together harmonies. A couple of rehearsals later, we were constantly singing lines from our main scenes to each other in perfect harmony! Before long, we were ready to put it together with the adult chorus and the other half of the youth chorus from Saffron Walden County High School, who we met when we did our first weekend rehearsals there. It was amazing putting our three part harmonies with the four part chorus of the adult singers. The rehearsals were directed by Dominic, the adult chorus conductor. The atmosphere created was so joyful and welcoming, it was amazing to be part of it. I left the first rehearsal genuinely feeling like a better singer!’

We are delighted for Jonathan Dove and very proud to have taken part in this project.