For the first time
Blogging for the first time is a strange feeling: a bit like joining rehearsals for a show halfway through. Everyone else has settled in and knows what they’re doing, you feel like the new boy, with a bit of learning and catching up to do.
One thing I’m pretty confident of is having stuff to write about. I’m Director of Education at the Royal Opera House, and we deliver an extensive education and community programme. In preparation for a talk to a group of music advisers a couple of weeks ago, I did a count-up of our activities over a two week period in early October. There were 29, while during the same period there were 14 performances of opera and ballet on our main stage. That’s a pretty accurate snapshot of a whole season; more than twice as many educational activities take place as main stage performances .
Some people are surprised to hear this. Indeed, some people I meet are surprised to hear that we do anything of this nature at all. “I had no idea the Royal Opera House did that kind of thing”. For some cruel reason that often tends to be said to me at a time when the Education team are all working flat-out and exhausted. I tend not to share the comment with them.
