On 24th November 2011 nine BBCM children attended a performance of La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Below see their reviews.

The clearest memories I had were the beginning and the end because I did not see all of Part 2. In the beginning at first there was nothing but then the orchestra played. Grandad said this was the overture! After that, the curtain went up and I saw people in a big restaurant. When Amina arrived, all of the people held up a banner for her because she was getting married. When Amina was sleeping everyone saw her and they were whispering in their singing.
When I came back at the end the lady Amina was singing the last song. Then all the people on the stage bowed to the audience and walked backwards and forwards, I stood up and clapped.
Evelyn Teague, age 5

On Thursday, November 24th, I went to the opera with my mummy, my brother, my music teacher and other friends from the BBCM. We were all dressed up in our BBCM uniform.
We went to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. The opera we saw is called La Sonnambula.
The music was composed by Vincenzo Bellini. The story was written by Felice Romani.
It is in two acts. The first act is longer than the second one.
There are six main characters: Amina, Elvino, Lisa, Alessio, Teresa and Count Rodolfo.
La Sonnambula means ‘sleepwalker’ in Italian. Amina sleepwalks at night and gets into trouble. At the beginning she is dressed as a maid. Then she wears a princess dress, for her wedding. At the end, she wears a beautiful red dress with shiny jewellery that sparkle.
The men are mostly dressed in black suits.
In the first act, people are having dinner and drinking. Outside, you can see mountains.
On the first floor of the stage, there are people standing or sitting.
From where I sat, I could see the man conducting the orchestra. It was fun to see him move with the music, which was sometimes very fast and happy and sometimes slow and sad. At the end, when Amina dances in her red dress, the music gets louder and exciting.
On the left of the stage, there was a woman in a black dress who was miming the action.
When the curtain closed, I clapped a lot. It was my first time at the opera.
Tilia Zamparo, age 5 (although turned 6 on 30th November 2011)

In the story, Elvino and Amina are getting married. I remember Amina singing a solo standing on the table and she was happy. But Amina sleepwalks and this makes Elvino cross with her because he doesn’t know she sleeps walks and he thinks she loves Count Rodolfo. It was night and everyone in the hotel got up to see, and they were shining their torches at Amina asleep lying down, singing in whispers. I also remember the singer Elvino shouting at his wife Amina when I looked at the picture in the programme. Elvino was angry and he threw a chair into the window, which crashed. He pulled off the table cloth as well, before he smashed the window. The music was very loud, with all the orchestra playing and his singing was cross and powerful.
The second half was shorter, in the same place, a big hotel. Amina was sleepwalking along the terrace again. Then everyone was happy and Amina and Elvino loved each other again.
Joseph Teague, age 7 (in October 2011)

On Thursday the 24th of November I went to La Sonnambula at The Royal Opera House. When the curtains opened I saw how detailed the scene was and I really liked, that when I looked out of the window I saw there were mountains and the sky was clear and then the moon rose. After that it started snowing. The music was surprisingly loud. I could not see the orchestra from my seat but I heard some violins. A lot of the singing was very high and steady. I liked the acting most of all.
This was my first opera and I really enjoyed it. I wonder when I will come back.
Juliette Majid, age 7

Agnes took us at the Royal Opera House to see La Sonnambula and I enjoyed it very much. Few days before my mum read us the story and showed us some pictures so I couldn’t wait to see Amina, walking as a ghost, in her sleep. I have made a drawing of her walking in her sleep and the people starring at her in amazement! This scene was very impressive and when Amina was singing her voice was so clear and calm, that it brought tears in my eyes. I could really imagine that she was sleeping and dreaming because when she was awake her voice was very different, much more vivacious. I found Lisa mean but I knew that this was because she was in love with Elvino and she was jealous.
Thank you again Agnes for taking us. I keep a memory (and a drawing!) of all your outings and I am just looking forward to the next one!
Naomi Walden, age 7

On Thursday 24th November, I went to the Royal Opera House with my mum, my sister, friends from my music school, the BBCM (Bela Bartok Centre for Musicianship), and my teacher Agnes Kory.
The opera we went to see is called La Sonnambula. It is in two acts. The music was composed by Vincenzo Bellini and the libretto was written by Felice Romani. They were both 19th century Italian artists.
The orchestra was supposed to be conducted by Daniel Oren, but due to illness, he was replaced by Richard Hetherington.
“La sonnambula” means “sleepwalker”. It is a bel canto opera.
The action takes place in a sort of a hotel in the middle of snowy mountains.
When the curtain opens, you see lots of people gathered round a table. There is a grand piano on the left of the stage. The set is on two floors. On the first floor, there are sometimes people standing or sitting, or coming out of a room. At the very back of the ground floor, you can see a landscape and there are also people sitting down at a table. Outside, you see a mountain which I think looks very real. The action takes place during the day but also at night. When it is night time, you see the moon lit next to the mountain top.
There are six main characters: Amina (soprano), Elvino (her lover), Lisa (the manager of the hotel, who is in love with Amina)), Alessio (one of the employee at the hotel, who is in love with Elvino), Teresa (Amina’s adoptive mother) and Count Rodolfo (Elvino is jealous of him because he thinks Amina prefers the Count to him).
Most of the characters wear waiter and waitress uniforms or black suits. When Amina sleepwalks at night in her white dress, she looks like a ghost. At the end, she wears a magnificent red dress.
Between Act I and Act II, there is a slight change of set. We are still in the dining room of the hotel, but the piano has been moved and covered, some tables are upside down and the layout is different. Outside it is snowing and you can see it has been snowing a lot because snow covers the entrance.
On the whole, the rhythm of the music sometimes changes quickly from slow to fast. There are quiet passages and brighter singing, depending on the mood of the scenes. At times it sounds really upsetting, and other times it sounds joyful. At the end, there is a grand finale.
It was my third time at the Royal Opera House. Every time is very different!
Scipio Zamparo, age 8

La Sonnambula is a 'bel canto' opera and the schools matinee production by the Royal Opera House certainly lived up to this, it was a beautiful opera and I did enjoy this production a lot.
The opera is the story of love, misunderstanding, jealousy and broken trust between people.
As the story begins the bride to be, Amina sung beautifully by Elena Xanthoudakis, goes about singing happily as she goes about preparing for her imminent wedding. It all goes terribly wrong when she is found sleeping in the recently arrived Count’s room (under his coat). I enjoyed when the chorus in their dressing gowns come to find the Count in the early morning. They sang in this hush stop, start way that was a real mix of excitement and playfulness....a bit cartoony. On the whole the chorus played a very strong and constant role in the opera.
Amina sang with beautiful rich ornate singing throughout most of the opera. One of the most striking moments though, was when she was sleep walking and very distraught from the rejection of Elvino. After she wrote Elvino's name on a blackboard she sang from her heart of her love for Elvino and the singing was so soft and beautiful and without any decoration, as bare and innocent and vulnerable as she was in the state of somnambulism.
Elvino sung by Celso Albelo had a style of singing that was a bit rough and his character was bit of a hot head. I liked when he started to sing '"no more wedding" and throw chairs and stuff out the window.
The jealous former lover of Elvino is called Lisa and sung by Madeleine Pierard. She tried to use the misunderstandings that result from Amina's sleepwalking to her advantage to get Elvino back but this fails in the end. It is a difficult part to play because nobody in the audience can like her for this.
Count Rodolfo was sung by Michele Pertusi and I thought he had an odd voice, it was a bit rough and not rough at the same time. When the Count put candles down to light the way for Amina as she sleepwalked, Amina would walk straight towards the candles and the count would move them. This showed very nicely that she was not seeing where she was going and how vulnerable she was in this state.
When Elvino sees her in this state and he starts to understand how it all had transpired and how innocent she is, he embraces her again as his bride. The opera goes from great distress to end dramatically on a very happy high note.
I liked the set especially when it was dark and the back lit high mountains of snow stood out dramatically. I did find it a bit disconcerting that the conductor Richard Hetherington's head stuck up a lot as I didn't think it should. But he did a very good job with the orchestra and the music was very beautiful.
Aaron Esler, age 10

On the 24th of November 2011 we went to see Bellini’s opera: La Sonnambula in the Royal Opera House, conducted by Richard Hetherington.
This opera was different from the ones I saw before; it was more modern. I found it a lot more difficult to relate to it, because I got confused with the story and the stage setting. The story line was a bit different from the one I read while preparing for the opera.
I liked the fact that the background was more modern, because it looked quite spectacular. The stage was an inn, or a hotel and it did not change throughout the opera. The stage had two levels, upstairs the bedrooms and downstairs the large open area with a table, the reception and the bar area. In the background, beyond the windows you could see the mountains. The stage setting was beautiful, but because it did not change at all during the opera I found it hard to relate it back to the story.
Most people on the stage were dressed in the same way; apart from the main characters like Lisa and Count Rodolfo. The background actors were all either sitting around the table or standing at the back of the stage. This also confused me a bit about the storyline.
The singing was also different from most of the other operas I saw before. The same character, like Amina had different styles of singing. She is a soprano, but she was sometimes very lively and loud in her singing and at other times very quiet and monotonous. I thought that the singers were singing very well, especially the singer, who sang Lisa’s part: Madeleine Pierard.
It was not my favourite opera that I saw, but I still quite enjoyed the music I heard.
Adam Aradi-Posylkin, age 11

Overall this was an enjoyable opera. The music was typical bel canto, light and easy listening; however being such meant it was full of clichés (not necessarily a bad thing).
The set was wonderfully extravagant; my mouth fell open as the curtains peeled away. However while being a treat to the eyes it sometimes felt at odds with the story, (village and swanky 1920s hotel don’t tend to go hand in hand). A staging nuance I really enjoyed was the subtle light as the ‘day’ went on.
My standout cast member was Madeleine Pierard who played Lisa. Her strong vocals and performance got me ‘rooting’ for her immediately; unfortunately this was not a good thing, as my support should have been for Amina. I reason I could not get behind Amina was purely due to Elena Xanthoudakis, who was unlikeable in the part and whose upper voice was shrill.
While I enjoyed Michele Pertuso’s stage capturing performance of Count Rodolfo, he is clearly mistaken if he thinks himself a bass, as his G2 was weak and underpowered.
As for the rest of the leads they were good but not standout. And the chorus acted and sang well, but at times felt a bit quiet.
Conall O’Neill, age 18

P.S:
My mind and eyes were on BBCM children during the performance but, nevertheless, I was impressed by Elena Xanthoudakis’ innate musicianship and knowledge of style. Indeed, to my ears, her delivery did not even indicate the immense vocal and dramatic difficulties of Amina’s part. Yet those difficulties are numerous...
Agnes Kory