The reviews are in! First up, a review from Maria Kästner

REVIEW

Ona’s Flood and Noye’s Fludde, Tithe Barn, Bradford on Avon

Bradford BarnStorm (Salisbury Playhouse, Iford Arts, Wiltshire Music Centre)

Friday 12 July, 2013

After having seen advertisements all over the town of Bradford on Avon , I felt truly honoured to see the World Premiere of Ona’s Flood by Harvey Brough, only to be followed by another outstanding performance of Noye’s Fludde by Benjamin Britten.

Ona’s Flood is the fictional 21st century tale of a young woman, Ona (Carris Jones) who recognises the catastrophic world flood that approaches. This contemporary opera involved a choir of adults from all corners of the community, harmonising together not only to give a moving performance, but to carry forth a warning message about today’s environmental issues.

For me, it was the use of modern colloquial lyrics juxtaposed with plainchant and ancient themes that made this performance original. Yet what impacted me the most was the child’s voice who narrated the news report that about the recent New York flooding, highlighting the message that ‘climate change is now a reality’.

The companion piece was Noye’s Fludde, following the Biblical Noah’s Ark story. The brilliant Noye (Andrew Slater) not only had a powerful voice that filled the space of the Tithe Barn, but also had a lovely way of working with the 100+ primary-aged children as the animal chorus on stage too. His performance, along with talented young soloists from St Laurence School, provided an uplifting experience. 

Andrew Slater appears on the Tithe Barn stage as Noye, alongside over 100 primary school children in animal hats and rainbow-coloured ponchos

The huge cast achieved an inspiring and earthy performance in which the audience were invited to join in with the hymns. This, one of Britten’s instructions, was a particularly wonderful way to pull together the community of Bradford on Avon as well as reiterating the opera’s message: working together through adversity to achieve a beautiful goal.

What an innovative way to use the historic Tithe Barn, and a perfect local acknowledgement of the nationwide Britten Centenary celebrations.

© Maria Kästner

St Laurence School, Year 12

A Little Legacy for our Great Contributors

Young performers from the Wiltshire Young Musicians have been gifted a legacy of 40 orchestral LED lights as part of their participation in Noye's Fludde.

The Young Musicians form the orchestra for all four performances of Benjamin Britten's community opera, Noye's Fludde (Noah's Flood), taking place next weekend (in case you need the dates again: Friday 12 and Saturday 13 July).

It became apparent that one of the major challenges of playing in the Tithe Barn is that there isn't sufficient lighting for instrumentalists to read the notes on the page. What a shame that the masons didn't bear this in mind 700 years ago!

Bradford Barnstorm then sought to provide a solution to enables these talented young instrumentalists to play.

Through fundraising via private donations, and grants from national trusts and foundations, as well as the support from the Town and County Council, we have been able to purchase 40 battery operated LED orchestral lights as a gift to the Wiltshire Young Musicians as part of the Barnstorm's legacy commitment to the local community.

The lights, which took six weeks in transit from China, arrived last week and are being used in rehearsals already in the final run up to the production. The groups taking part are the West Wiltshire Intermediate String Ensemble, the West Wiltshire Percussion Ensemble and recorder players and trumpeters from the West Wiltshire Concert Band and West Wiltshire Intermediate Wind Band.

After they have been used for the Noye's Fludde shows, it is hoped that the lights will be able to provide the impetus to perform in more unusual and unconventional venues. They are a resource that we hope will last for many more generations of Young Musicians coming up through the ranks, so watch out for a WYM group performing near you soon.

(L-R) Amy Richards, Helen Suggden, Alice Evans, Juliet Gupta of the West Wiltshire Intermediate String Ensemble

7 days to go ... a progress report

Dear Barnstormers and Britten-ites,

Apologies for the long gap between blog posts. Hopefully you have been following our progress on Twitter and other social media, and interacting with us face-to-face at rehearsals, market stalls and social events.

If not, here is our not-an-annual-report Report.

Any community project takes a lot of work and gives a lot of fun, and Bradford Barnstorm's production of Benjamin Britten's Noye's Fludde with Harvey Brough's stunning new composition Ona's Flood has been no exception!

And so, here we have arrived in early July 2013 and it feels like we're close to the culmination of almost two years' work. So what have we been doing all the time? Well ...

IN THE BEGINNING...

There was no cash. It costs more money than you might think to put on a non-profit-making production of this kind, so one of the first things we had to do was to raise over £30,000. Without that, we couldn't be sure that the production could go ahead. Applications were made to anyone and everyone who might consider the educational, as well as theatrical, aspects of the project and support came not only from a number of people who wish to remain anonymous, but also from Britten Pears Foundation, Col Llewellyn Palmer Educational Trust, Fitzmaurice Charitable Trust, Jack Lane Charitable Trust, Wessex Water, Co-operative Community Fund, Arts Council Lottery Fund, Wiltshire Council, Bradford on Avon Town Council and St Laurence School.

By Autumn 2012 it was clear that the Ark would float.

Written for children, Barnstorm felt that Noye's Fludde was of insufficient length to provide a full evening's worth of entertainment, and we wanted people to see the potential of the Tithe Barn as a performance space. To keep the audience in our company for longer, Harvey Brough was commissioned to write a companion piece featuring a community choir. The inspiration for the secular cantata, Ona's Flood, is a village in Catalonia that was flooded to create a reservoir for Barcelona's water supply. At times, the medieval church tower stands above the water level. This unusual sight was something that librettist Clara Sanabras had remembered vividly from her childhood and inspired the text that Harvey Brough then set to music.

GINGERBREAD AND CHRISTMAS TREES

One memorable Saturday was spent making more than 300 gingerbread animals for the Christmas Tree Festival held in Bradford on Avon's Holy Trinity Church. Several of our wonderful and dedicated community volunteers took part in this collective baking drive, and it was another great way to get out into the local community and have a presence, as we slowly introduced the town to the idea that this project was looming! We all learnt something new through this exercise: that animal cookie cutters come in all shapes and sizes, and therefore our Christmas Ark Tree had dinosaurs and giant beers in it. Sounds very Doctor Who to me ...

LAUNCHING THE ARK AND LOOKING FOR GOD

Salisbury Playhouse has been one of the key supporters in this project, and put forward designer Tom Paris and director Ben Occhipinti, who enthusiastically helped with the official Launch in February 2013. Decorated with rainbow striped umbrellas, Wiltshire Music Centre (a partner in the project from its earliest days) provided the setting for the Launch. Volunteers came forward, and there was much interest in signing up for audition slots (including the chance to "play God"!). Everyone wanted to be involved in one way or another. Harvey Brough and Clara Sanabras presented Ona's Flood to the gathered public for the first ever airing of the piece, and the nucleus of the community choir was already hooked.

SCHOOLS, CHILDREN'S WORKSHOPS AND OTHER ANIMALS

Once the structure of the production had been put in place, contact was made with local schools and ideas for a programme of workshops were warmly received, with the promise of learning the music, practising the movement, creating the animal and bird hats and preparing for the stage!

St Laurence School led the music sessions in each of the schools, teaching the animal chorus parts and the congregational hymns, and challenging groups of young children to sing confidently together. Music and Movement workshops run by director Ben Occhipinti and a choreographer were given in the local schools as well. The way designer Tom Paris saw best to dress the animal choruses was to let each child create their own animal hat (or glasses for birds), so hundreds of costume-shop bowler hats and second-hand 3D cinema glasses were purchased to be adorned with ears, tails, feathers, fur, scales and googly eyes - two-by-two of course! These hat-making workshops were run by yet more fantastic volunteers who encouraged the children to be imaginative and creative with their materials. This was, it goes without saying, immensely fun and sticky and messy and the results have been phenomenal. Apart from a few sneak-peeks on Facebook and Twitter, the end result remains a secret until those animals come marching two-by-two into the Tithe Barn next weekend ...

FLOODS, FETES AND RAINBOWS

Well you can't have a flood without a rainbow, and designer Tom Paris wondered if, for such a special event we could make quite a big one. After a flurry of activity around the area - especially by the stalwart twosome who attended many local fetes, fairs and festivals - squares of material donated by members of the community was cut, dyed, adorned, tacked and stitched. A truly beautiful 18 metre long (!) rainbow emerged like a butterfly! This enormous fabric creation has been contributed by hundreds but seen by only a few in it's entirety, so await the performances for it's spectacular unveiling and what undoubtedly will be one of the highlights of the shows.

LET THERE BE LIGHTS!

We were delighted to have been able to present the Wiltshire Young Musicians under their Musical Director, Daniel Smith, with orchestra lights for their continued use. These battery-operated LED lights will be very necessary for the young performers to see their music in the Tithe Barn, and we hope that the gift of these 40 lights will be a legacy from Barnstorm, and may enable the performers to continue to make music in venues that are more challenging and more exciting!

STILL MORE TO COME ...

The Barnstorm project is two-fold: as well as the productions of the two Floods on 12th and 13th July 2013 there is also the additional legacy of negotiating with English Heritage for local management contracts, to be held by local groups - in this case the Bradford on Avon Preservation Trust without the need for the necessary, but lengthy, negotiations for use on each occasion.

We hope that in future the wider community of Bradford on Avon and the surrounding area will make use of the space that the Tithe Barn offers, whether for an under-cover Christmas market, gatherings, theatre (The Bradfordians theatre group used the Barn for The Crucible in 2011, and their discussions with English Heritage laid the foundations for much of the current negotiations) or whatever can be imagined.

Talks are still on-going, but should conclude successfully by the end of 2013.

And of course, there are still the performances. Four of them over two days, each with a seating capacity of over 420, with nearly 200 performers on stage. We are days away from selling out. So if you were undecided ... BOOK NOW, before the Ark sails off without you!

Six weeks to go - Project Update

Just a quick update for anyone interested in where we are up to with the production of Ona's Flood and Noye's Fludde:

In Brief ...
The joint productions of Noye's Fludde and Ona's Flood are giving up to 400 local school children and more than 100 adult enthusiasts the benefit of professional support in an exciting music theatre programme. Staged on 12 and 13 July, it will be one of the biggest shows that the town of Bradford on Avon has seen in the past 20 years. Tickets are on sale now from Wiltshire Music Centre - don't wait until the last minute, they're going fast!

The Barn
Agreement in principle has been reached with English Heritage, the Town Council and the Preservation Trust to confirm the local management contract which we had hoped for, to ensure ready access to the Barn for community activities in the future.

As we are now less than 6 weeks away from curtain-up, we are certain that the joint production of Noye's Fludde and Ona's Flood will be a fantastic example of the potential of this space for performance on a large scale, and to encourage others in the community to think creatively about the wider use of the Tithe Barn.

We have also reached an agreement with English Heritage about suitable lighting and flooring solutions that will provide a physical legacy for future users of the Barn.

The Performers
Following two extremely successful audition days, we have found six talented young people to play Noye's sons and their wives, as well as a great team of "gossips", Mrs. Noye's drinking buddies!

Teaching staff from St Laurence School have now completed two sessions in each of the cluster primary schools to teach the students involved as the animal choruses the music and words to Noye's Fludde, in which these pupils will form the animal chorus. They are all excited about the prospect of making their own animal costumes, and have been extremely keen to participate and learnt all the words. Some groups have already made their costumes and it's thrilling for the whole team to see how quickly the production is coming to life.

All the young performers are excited to be working with the professional Director and Designer from Salisbury Playhouse, and being on stage with two professional opera singers!

Financial position
We have successfully secured funding from a number of trusts, foundations, and local businesses and individuals. We are extremely grateful to both the Town Council and Wiltshire County Council for their support, as well as Arts Council England and many others. Business sponsorship has also come from Wessex Water and the Co-Operative Community Fund. We are also thankful to our primary arts partners: Iford Arts, Salisbury Playhouse and Wiltshire Music Centre, as well as St Laurence School and the cluster primaries for all they contribute on a daily basis.

St Laurence School has pledged a substantial amount to assist in a reduction of prices for the matinee performances for parents, carers and siblings, reducing the advertised ticket price from £7 to £3. This is a concession which Barnstorm will match for any other participating children, including the instrumentalists from the West Wiltshire Young Musicians.

Our diligent team of volunteers has been on a mission around the shops and businesses of the local area to seek out people willing to part with some pennies and book some advertising space in our souvenir programme book. We have very nearly reached our extremely ambitious targets, and are extremely grateful to everyone who has agreed to support us in this way.

Assuming satisfactory ticket sales, we are in a healthy financial position.

The Community Choir
Our ever-expanding mailing list of interested choristers has reached over 130 people, so we await the first rehearsal workshop day on Sunday (9th) to see how many turn up, who brings all their friends and family and to give Ona's Flood it's first real sing-through!

The Production
All the design work is underway and props and set are currently in the workshop. If anyone attended the launch and saw the plans for the set then ... be warned, it's evolved into a very different beast now! The plans are now quite secret, so no peeking in the Tithe Barn during production week, and keep the visuals a surprise for the 12th or 13th!

We also hosted some wonderfully creative "rainbow-making workshops" last week during Half Term, inviting volunteers of all ages to come and stitch together squares of colourful materials to make strips of 7-colour rainbow stripes. These are now all being stitched lovingly together to make a gigantic community rainbow. This is the handiwork of literally hundreds of people from across the area, and it will be a thing of awe and beauty!

Some notable achievements
"Bradford Barnstorm" has now been registered as a charitable association with HMRC approval.

Composer of Ona's Flood, Harvey Brough, has worked with A-Level students from St Laurence School to help them with their composition work in school.

As part of the legacy of the project, Bradford Barnstorm has purchased 40 LED orchestra lights as a gift to the West Wiltshire Young Musicians. This will hopefully open up the performance opportunities to the ensembles to play in less conventional venues and embark on more exciting and ambitious projects, as befitting of such talented young performers.

Thank-Yous!
It would be neglectful to not recognise the tens of thousands of pounds we do not have to spend thanks to hundreds of community volunteers who are engaged at some level of activity around this project. The value of this work really does not have a price, and the trustees wish to acknowledge this cooperative effort and sincerely hope that everyone will continue to enjoy the project together, since that is the overall objective for volunteers.

WANTED: Rainbow makers!

I can SEW a rainbow!

Listen up! This is the first leaked picture of some of the design elements for our production of Noye's Fludde from ace designer Tom Paris!

The idea is that we make a huge community rainbow made out of donated squares of fabric. What we really need is to recruit a small team of Bradford on Avon volunteers to manage the collection of materials and the creation of the rainbow itself.

We also need EVERYONE to chip in! We are seeking at least 700, yes, SEVEN HUNDRED squares of fabric of all colours and patterns 15cmx15cm to be stitched into the rainbow in a public sewing session vbetween 28 May to 31 May. Contact info@bradfordbarnstorm.org.uk if you think you can lend your talents, or just fabric offcuts!!

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Also, we are still seeking volunteers for various other exciting roles to assist in the production:

• An experienced wardrobe mistress to liaise with Salisbury Playhouse on maintenance of the principals' costumes. (Contact: info@bradfordbarnstorm.org.uk)
• Distribution helpers for fliers to various local organisations and addresses from 3 May onwards. (Contact: sarahibbard(at)gmail.com)
• Stewards on 12 and 13 July during performances. (Contact: emma.cross(at)ukgateway.net)
• Help for set-up Thursday 4 July and get-out Sunday 14 July. (Contact: courages(at)tiscali.co.uk)

Have you heard the gossip(s)?

wHAT could you do?

NOYES FLUDDE PROJECT: Your involvement

Friday April 12th – 9.00 am Wiltshire Music Centre. Hat making experiments.

Please come to this if you would be interested in using your creativity to explore ways of helping primary school children to characterise a bowler hat (felt, provided) as their chosen animal. It’s a ‘find-out-by-doing’ morning. Should be a lot of fun. We plan to try to pre-empt potential difficulties, discover best methods, and look for ways of enabling children to use their creativity to suggest an animal of their choice.  Bring scissors, maybe glue? Glue guns? We shall need textured or naturalistic fabrics, bits of raffia, ?wood shavings?? Anything to suggest scales, manes, beaks, hide, fur, pelts, ears, whiskers, feathers, real or paper, slime, shell, eyes, any particular characteristic, you name it!! Tom (our designer) will provide a couple of prototypes to get us going. He is also thinking of decorated spectacles to represent the birds. We need to find someone who will do a bit of online research to find very cheap sunglasses ?ebay? or unwanted 3D specs. Perhaps we should also start a town collection of unwanted big framed specs? We would like to offer this activity to those of you who would also be prepared to help in the classroom workshops during the week beginning June 03. We shall need a number of committed helpers plus additional administrative help to organise and promote.

Friday April 12th - 11.30 am Wiltshire Music Centre.

After the hat making session above - A meeting to discuss other production needs and seek volunteers to create small teams to select/ adapt / organise

a) costumes for the show

b) the community rainbow making workshop – this is a lovely community wide project for end May involving making a huge patchwork rainbow out of squares of recycled fabric.

We have the design and spec for this but need additional proactive helpers as there will need to be a community-wide drive to collect the fabric, organise venue, publicity, etc.  It will also be great publicity for the event.

Please confirm your interest to Jacqui at       choircontact@gmail.com

If God made the world in 7 days ...

... then we found our God in 7 hours!

We were looking to cast the lead and chorus roles of Benjamin Britten's community opera, Noye's Fludde for our production in July, taking place in Bradford on Avon's Tithe Barn.

Starting at noon and ending after 7pm, a panel made up of Director, Ben Occhipinti, Musical Director, Mike Daniels, Producer, Judy Eglington, and Coordinator, Christina Hall, saw over 40 candidates to cast the roles of God, Noah's sons and their wives, and the dancers to perform the roles of the raven and dove.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to all who gave up their time to prepare and audition. There was some astounding talent from across Wiltshire who came to audition, and the cast list will be released soon. Watch this space ...

I've been through the ringer ...

A break from a water-based pun ... and a bell one to start this post!

We are desperately seeking a handbell ensemble or handbell choir based in the South West of England to perform in our production of Noye's Fludde by Benjamin Britten, and also to play in the WORLD PREMIERE of Harvey Brough's brand new work, Ona's Flood.

We need a set of bells in E-flat, and Britten's original score calls for six players.

If you can help, or know of anyone who might, please do get in touch! Find out how on our website: www.bradfordbarnstorm.org.uk

Various rehearsals in June/July and performances on 12 and 13 July 2013.

Sau - some background to the setting of "Ona's Flood"

Pantà de Sau (Sau Reservoir) is the setting for the fictional tale of Ona’s Flood by Harvey Brough and libretto by Clara Sanabras. This brand new commission by Barnstorm will receive its World Premiere in the Tithe Barn, Bradford on Avon in July 2013 as part of a double-bill listing with Benjamin Britten’s community opera, Noye’s Fludde.

Ona’s Flood is a modern-day flood story and written as a companion piece to Noye’s Fludde, with many of the key themes in common, and the characters drawing many parallels between the two works. Set in Catalonia, the Sau Reservoir was created in 1962 by submerging the village of Sau. It is 17km and 3km wide at its maximum. The main point of interest however, is the bell tower of the Romanesque church which, when the level is low, can be seen above the water. For the locals it is a popular indicator of the level of the water, and serves as a central point around which to jet-ski, water-ski, yachting and for fishing. Many enjoy this scenic spot for its water sports and recreational potential, but for many visitors and tourists, the tower of the Sant Romà de Sau has a powerful emotional effect because of the feeling of “wrongness” about this whole village being submerged by man to feed water into Barcelona. As one commentator says, the church is now a “shelter for fish, not of souls”.

Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pant%C3%A0_de_Sau

Have a nosy here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP342xKK7m8

See people canoeing right by the submerged tower here: http://vimeo.com/46924315

How cool is that?!

Having taken a few days to recover from the excitement, I wanted to report on how the Project Launch on Monday evening went.

We had set up in the foyer of the Wiltshire Music Centre with six "islands" marked out with rainbow umbrellas, indicating where people should go to sign up for, or talk to someone about, auditions / choir / design team / volunteering / production / workshops.

People came in a steady stream all afternoon, and sign-ups for all the areas were really strong and ideas were pouring in for Noye's Fludde! Discussion was certainly free-flowing - as were the teas and coffees!

Particular interest was paid to the scale model of the set, brought in by the creative team from Salisbury Playhouse and designer Tom Paris. It's a wonderful way to use the space in the Tithe Barn effectively, whilst trying to make sure that there is enough space for the orchestra, and levels to fit all of the animals!

The buzz that has been building in the town translated brilliantly to the evening, and hopefully this will only continue to grow as time goes on and we build towards July. It's wonderful to hear so many people aware of what we are getting up to, and to have such local interest in active involvement.

The afternoon easily transitioned to evening, and from 7pm we all moved into the auditorium to hear all about our second flood: Ona's Flood. Clara Sanabras spoke beautifully about her story - a personal tale set in a real place near Vic in Catalonia, Spain at the Sau Reservoir [for more information about Sau, please read a blog post coming very soon ...!] and the fictional characters of the story. Ona, our fragile heroine, has a premonition of a flood. Her friend Mel, who is a climate change campaigner, travels with Ona on her journey, and both are escorted by the comical character of the Cockney driver of the coach (a modern-day ark!) The parallels between this Flood and Noye's Fludde are numerous, and are conceived of in often very subtle and intelligent ways. Clara described this as "mixing a cocktail" - to throw in all the ingredients of Noye, shake it, and see what comes out:
Ona = Noah
Mel = Mrs Noah
Coach trip = Ark
Coach driver = Voice of God

It was then over to Harvey to preview the music. He and Clara had recorded all the voice parts and played us key sections of the demo of the full choral arrangement. Much of the music was extremely beautiful and moving, holding those assembled entranced. There were also lots of extremely funny comical lines, and the lightness of the libretto and accompanying music made many laugh out loud. As a first airing of a piece, it was very well received and Harvey seemed pleased at its reception.

The time allowed of the evening gave the opportunity not just to listen, but to sing as well. Mike Daniels, musical director, and Kirsty Barry, pianist for the performances and Head of Music at St Laurence School, took to the stage to warm up the "choir". 

After a few stretches, we sang through two of the congregational hymns featured in Noye's Fludde, and one movement from Ona's Flood. We sang from Act III - De Profundis (Out of the depths have I creid to thee, O Lord) and from Act IV - Fiction (How cool is that?! How cool is that?! It's like Waterworld where Kevin Costner rescues that girl that is so cool! How cool is that?! How cool is that?! That is one of the seven wonders of the world!) The continued buzz through the evening was maintained right until the end, and everyone walked out excited and talking about the future.

All in all, a really wonderful evening. Thanks to the Barnstorm team, to Mike and Kirsty, Harvey and Clara, and most of all to everyone who turned up, showed an interest and played a part in the success of the whole project launch. We look forward to seeing you very soon. Watch this space and the website www.bradfordbarnstorm.org.uk for more information and updates about activities.

Flood Warning!

Update!

Harvey Brough has reported that he has finished writing Ona's Flood, the companion piece specially commissioned to receive its WORLD PREMIERE in July alongside our production of Noye's Fludde.

All of us at Barnstorm HQ are thrilled that the muse has clearly not been stuck in the blizzards or in the gym mid-detox, and are extremely excited for the event on February 18th for the first hearing of this new and never-before-heard work!

Here's a little more information if the above excitement, exclamation marks and water-based puns are not enough to whet your appetite to attend on the 18th.

Harvey Brough, composer, is one of the UK’s most diverse and accomplished musicians, having worked with artists and ensembles ranging from The English Concert Orchestra, Liane Carroll, the Dankworth Family, Soul II Soul, Mark Padmore and the Brodsky String Quartet. He is passionate about working with young people and with non-professional musicians and singers. In performance his work is secular in feel, rhythmically interesting, accessible, heartfelt and often moving. His work is an intriguing combination of influences: jazz, choral and early music, often marrying the ancient with the modern.

Clara Sanabras, the librettist for Ona's Flood, is a versatile musician and performer as well as being an exceptionally original songwriter. She writes in a variety of English, Spanish, French and Catalan, telling spellbinding stories in the languages in which they feel most natural and authentic. Harvey writes: “Clara’s ideas for this project were exactly in line with what I wanted – like Britten’s medieval text its subject is a flood. A subject which, when considered nowadays, raises some very modern questions about how mankind has changed the world we live in. And her extraordinarily varied musical experience and knowledge of anything from medieval music to Björk is key in her understanding of what I need for this project."

Ona’s Flood, a brand new work written specially for us to receive its world premiere this July, has been conceived as a modern counterpart to Noye’s Fludde by Benjamin Britten. Ona’s Flood is a suite of song texts set to music. A fictional 21st Century tale, the story unfolds as a premonition to a catastrophic world flood by a young female character, Ona, who is on a tourist outing to the site of a man-made lake and submerged village in Catalonia, where the extraordinary sight of the Romanesque church spire can been seen in the middle of the lake when the water level is low. The characters and their roles are contemporary, but not dissimilar to those in the early 15th century Mystery play that Britten used as his source.

Find out more about the Launch event on February 18, and about how to book tickets at www.bradfordbarnstorm.org.uk

PROJECT LAUNCH

You are cordially invited to attend the Bradford Barnstorm

PROJECT LAUNCH

Monday 18 February

at Wiltshire Music Centre

Come and be part of our brand new community production

Sing in a WORLD PREMIERE performance

From 4.00 pm

Major press launch.

Meet the director, designer, and conductor, Mike Daniels.

Find out more about the production of Noye’s Fludde.

From 6.00 pm

Meet and mingle for all interested in the Foyer Bar.

Find out about opportunities to volunteer and get involved creatively.

7.00 pm

Presentation of Ona’s Flood by Clara Sanabras, librettist, and Harvey Brough, composer. Followed by taster session for singers led by Harvey Brough.

NO AUDITION!

Sing through some of the movements of the piece. Informal, accessible and all-comers welcome, whether you have sung before or not. Interest and enthusiasm are more important than experience!

For more information and the choir rehearsal schedule please visit: www.bradfordbarnstorm.org.uk

It’s all about two floods ...

ONA’S FLOOD (a brand new work composed for us by Harvey Brough) will be performed by professional soloists, local school children and adults from our community on 12 and 13 July, 2013 in the historic Tithe Barn. This piece will be performed alongside Noah’s Flood (NOYE’S FLUDDE, by Benjamin Britten) fully staged as part of the nationwide Britten Centenary celebrations.