Written by Ada, a member of ENO Engage Youth Company and a Year 11 student at Our Lady’s Convent High School, Hackney.

Read Ada’s thoughts on the Youth Company’s second module which focused on storytelling through music and staging. The group worked with director Karen Gillingham, vocal leader Suzi Zumpe and composer Dominic Harlan to create and stage their own scenes in response to a well-known moral tale.

‘The past two days have been really fun.

It was our second opportunity to come together as a group and create something amazing at the end.

The thing that made this time different is that we had a goal. We were going to create something to present, something we were proud of and in a sense it gave us a target. We had a starting point and we had a finishing point.

For me the part of the sessions that I enjoyed the most was the journey. I really enjoyed being able to interact with everyone and to interpret the story of King Midas and the Golden Touch. There were so many aspects of the myth that were relatable to modern day life and therefore whilst enjoying ourselves we were able to think about how we live our lives and bring our own twist to the story.

I liked the brainstorming activity we did because it made me think a lot more than I normally do. We went into a lot of detail and really thought about the different parts of the story.

I enjoyed working with Karen and Suzi, and it was nice to explore different aspects of opera such as the physicality which was demonstrated through physical theatre. I also learnt a lot about how much thought goes into design process and how much of an impact it can have on a performance. I really enjoyed Dom’s enthusiasm because he pumped us all up with energy ready to sing our hearts out.

For me the highlight of the sessions was straight after the performance. We had done it. We knew what we wanted to do and we sung our socks off. It was an exceptional experience and I personally cannot wait for the next sessions.’