Chris Walton, Adapting Wagner for the Young: An Interview with Merle Fahrholz and Alvaro Schoeck

Opera for young people is not a new concept in the English-speaking world – probably everyone in the music business in the UK will have taken part in one of Britten’s works for children in their youth, with Noye’s Fludde still a firm favourite. But the past twenty years have seen a vast expansion in activities for young people organised by our big, state-run institutions. All the main orchestras seem to have education projects, while the Royal Opera House Covent Garden even has an extensive ‘Learning Platform’ offering all manner of ‘Create and Sing’ and ‘Create and Dance’ programmes for different age groups (and it’s not without irony that these programmes have mushroomed at the same time that austerity has brought drastic cutbacks in instrumental tuition in schools). Wagner naturally can’t fail to be in on the act.