Benjamin Britten: The Little Sweep

Benjamin Britten: The Little Sweep

Opera for children in two parts

Hungarian State Opera House

Director: BATA Rita

Conductors: BARTAL László and KÖTELES Géza

Premiére: 20 September 2009

"Since Purcell produced Dido and Aeneas for Josias Priest's girls' school at Chelsea, no more beautiful opera for child performers has been written. Its immediate popularity as an entertainment, not only in this country but all over the world, has been phenomenal; but what is more difficult to assess is the extent of its influence in introducing children to opera. In some countries a new generation is growing up that, thanks partly to its example, is prepared to accept opera and its conventions as a natural and familiar art. The Little Sweep is an opera of innocence - of innocence betrayed and rescued -, and it is fully worthy of the singer of innocence who inspired it."

According to the original concept (which worked perfectly), The Little Sweep (libretto by Eric Crozier) was the third act of Let's Make an Opera!, which was composed for the entertainment and musical-theatrical education of the young. In the first act the children decide to compose an opera, which they rehearse in the second act and perform in the third. The plot is based on a short story by Charles Dickens.