A Gamelan Carmen

Year 4  have been stirring up an exciting cultural combination with Indonesian Gamelan and Georges Bizet's opera Carmen. Year 4's presentation of Carmen has been an annual event since our first collaboration with The Royal Opera House and previous Year 4s have also performed  traditional Indonesian shadow puppetry accompanied by Javanese Gamelan percussion instruments. This year we are bringing the two art forms together. Set in Spain but by a French composer, Carmen is the dramatic story of a Gypsy girl who meets a soldier and then a bull fighter, with disastrous consequences. Children will sing  the Carmen songs with recorded orchestral and live Gamelan accompaniment and enact the story with shadow puppets they made themselves. We originally planned for each class to perform a show to their own parents in the last week of term but we have moved these to the summer term 4C on Tuesday 3rd, 4S on Wednesday 4th  and 4K on Thursday 5th May. This will be a live performances and we hope to serve some authentic Javanese snacks. Masks are recommended for the audience as Covid19  levels are very high.