Year 8 Student Makes English National Opera Debut
An extraordinary week for Year 8 student, Zoe, has seen her twice sing solo with the English National Opera in their new and acclaimed production of Gluck’s opera Iphigénie en Tauride.
Zoe took to the stage at the London Coliseum – the West End’s largest theatre – in the role of the young Iphigénie and, finally, Goddess Diana, performing both in last Friday’s opening night and again on Wednesday.
All this, of course, was taking place alongside a normal school week for Zoe and for Lucy, the performer with whom she shared the role, singing alternate nights. Zoe herself had tests in English, Computer Science and Maths herself on the day of her opening performance, and she helped Lucy revise her GCSE English notes during rehearsals. The cast even got involved in Zoe’s Music homework, listening to a piece from the musical Hamilton!
Despite this being the first time she had ever sung solo in a classical piece, the quality of Zoe’s first-night performance was noted in the reviews. London Box Office.co.uk’s Stuart King said:
“The scene-stealer award of the evening goes to the young performer who assumes the guise of Iphigénie as a child then reveals herself (deus ex machina) as the Goddess Diana … In the finale Act IV, scene 6, she delivers a breathily beautiful rendering of the recitative “Arrêtez! Écoutez mes décrets éternels” which on opening night was near-perfection.”
Huge congratulations to Zoe on this amazing debut. Her next audition, she tells us, is for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We wish her the best of luck and can’t wait to see what she does next.
