Arts festival for kids returns to the capital

Two young singers are hoping to sow the seeds of opera among a younger audience.

New Zealand Opera singers Pasquale Orchard, 22, and Will King, 23, have been cast in the upcoming kid-friendly version of Rossini’s The Barber Of Seville – Orchard as Rosina and King as the title character the barber of Seville, Figaro.

They’ll be performing it in Wellington, as part of the biennial Capital E National Arts Festival.

At first glance, opera may seem an odd choice for a kid’s show, but both Orchard and King know that’s not the case.

‘‘I saw Magic Flute when I was 9 or 10 at school and I just went home singing,’’ Orchard said.

She sang an aria from it over and over again and hoped their performance of The Barber Of Seville might do something similar.

‘‘If we have that effect on just one kid in the audience, that will be the one thing,’’ she said.

King might not have grown up with the same sort of love of opera – as he said, he was never a singer growing up, focusing on his violin skills instead.

But it was when he went to university, he fell into singing and a series of opportunities sprung up, including being named an intern under the Dame Malvina Major Emerging Artists programme in 2019 – a position also given to Orchard.

Opera may seem intimidating from the outside for people unfamiliar with the form – monocles and fancy gowns might be the first thing to come to mind for many – but King said if he saw The Barber Of Seville as a kid, he would have realised it’s not so different from the more poppy songs he used to sing.

This particular version of the opera has also been translated into English and the setting changed up slightly so children could more easily connect to the story unfolding.

That’s not to say the singers aren’t without their nerves – Orchard has taught singing and dancing to children but hasn’t often performed in front of them, while King is familiar with the risks of bringing shows to younger audiences.

From March 9 to 22, Capital E will be bringing theatre created specially for young people – from operas, shadow puppets, acrobatics, music and more – to schools and the public around the Wellington region.

The Barber Of Seville will be on March 16 at Circa Theatre. Tickets and details through capitale.org.nz.