Children at Presteigne Primary School swapped their exercise books for arias recently as they took part in a five-day opera residency led by Mid Wales Opera.

Pupils in Years 5 and 6 spent the week working alongside the professional opera company to create and perform their own mini-opera inspired by Puss in Boots. The project saw them write lyrics, build characters, and rehearse songs before staging their final performance for friends and family.

The residency was delivered by Mid Wales Opera’s creative team, director and designer Richard Studer and music director Jonathan Lyness. The initiative aimed to boost creativity, literacy, and confidence by helping children develop storytelling skills through music and song.

The chosen theme - Puss in Boots, based on Xavier Montsalvatge’s 1948 opera - offered plenty of imaginative scope for the children. With its colourful characters and episodic plot, the tale lent itself to lively scenes and inventive costumes, created with the help of costume artist Jill Rolfe.

Pupils also had the rare opportunity to work with renowned British mezzo-soprano Maria Jagusz, who joined the team to support the children’s vocal development.

Jonathan Lyness, Mid Wales Opera’s musical director, said: “Teaching songs to kids is one of the best things ever! It’s such fun, they’re so quick, and for those that aren’t quite sure, all I need to do is remove the front of an old upright piano and show them the hammers!

“When a teenager comes up to you in the middle of the street in a small Welsh market town, says ‘Hello, Jon!’, and then starts singing What’s the Use? from Bernstein’s Candide because, some years earlier, they’d learnt that song at the local primary school… that’s when you know you’ve made some sort of difference - in a good way!”

The project forms part of Mid Wales Opera’s wider mission to bring opera to communities and young people across the region. As the company begins planning its next two years of outreach and performance work, it is calling on supporters to help ensure the future of projects like the Presteigne residency.

Donations of any size can be made online at midwalesopera.co.uk, and the company welcomes approaches from schools or community groups interested in working with them - enquiries can be sent to [email protected]

Mid Wales Opera returns this autumn for their much-anticipated SmallStages tour, with Bernstein’s razor-sharp Trouble in Tahiti; a jazzy, one-act opera peeling back the gloss of 1950s suburbia to reveal the cracks in the American dream. Performed in a chamber arrangement with a cast of five and seven musicians, the opera is followed by a lively second half celebrating American opera and musical theatre. Tickets for all venues are on sale soon. Visit their website to find out more.

From the first full-scale Mid Wales Opera performance of The Magic Flute in 1989 to the present day, shows have consistently premiered at Hafren in Newtown, which continues to serve as the company's artistic home to this day.