Â鶹ԼÅÄ

Children from Frizinghall Primary School and Margaret McMillan Primary Schools in Bradford, Myrtle Park Primary School in Bingley and Lees Primary School in Haworth will be performing the opera, The Wind on the Moor, in front of an invited audience at Haworth Parish Church on Thursday, 30th March 2006.

The Brontës - sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne together with brother Branwell - were still only children when they started to create their own imaginary worlds on paper. Even when the famous literary sisters had grown up and published novels they still drew on their experiences as children.

Haworth Parsonage, home of the Brontes.

Two hundred years on, Bradford school children have been exploring the Brontë story by taking part in activities focusing on life in the Parsonage, the village of Haworth and the surrounding countryside. Musical composition, writing, singing, dance, drama and mime have all played a part in creating the opera.

Andrew McCarthy from the Brontë Parsonage Museum says: "We have focused on the Brontës experience of childhood in Haworth and the contrast between this industrial village in which they grew up and the extraordinary worlds they created in their early writing."

Amongst those helping Andrew and the Museum with the opera is Alison Prince, creator of Trumpton. Composer Andrew Keeling, whose work has been performed and broadcast throughout the world, will be providing musical support as will Mark Robinson, Fellow in Music at the University of Bradford, who is acting as Musical Director.

Haworth Moor

Partnering the Museum for this project is Operahouse, an organisation working on music based creative projects in primary schools across the country and pulling everything together is their Artistic Director Virginia Rushton.Ìý She says it's been "exhilarating and exhausting!Ìý The journey from blank page to performance is always exciting for a composer but on this project we have had 120 young composers and performers and their teachers so we’re off the scale in terms of excitement."

But Virginia feels all this hard work has paid off: "As the journey has progressed, it has gathered pace and is now racing towards the premiere of The Wind on the Moor. Harnessing all the energy and ideas, keeping the creative process on track, supporting the class teachers as they came to grips with techniques for writing songs, and simply managing such a large group of children has been a challenge.Ìý But we knew what we were aiming for, and I think we have achieved something unique for each of us and for our audience."