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The Sygnathidae [1]
S e a h o r s e s
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A new immersive opera work for diverse young people aged 8 –11yrs in partnership with Newham Music Hub.
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The opera features a diverse cast and integrates spoken word and jazz forms that speak to histories of struggle and oppression.
Seahorses are under extreme man-made and environmental threat and if no intervention is made they will be extinct as a species within 30 years.
Young people will have the opportunity to participate in the professional production through choral music, develop their advocacy skills as environmental activists with organisations such as ‘The Seahorse Trust’ and co-create a public digital installation ‘The Seahorse’s Lament’.
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Snout, a short-nosed seahorse, travels from his home in the outer grasslands to warn the court of All Sygnathidae of the danger to the community. He is pregnant and should be confined, but he breaks with tradition and culture to try and save his world.
Preparations for the inauguration of the new President of All Sygnathidae are in full flow, and no one is allowed to enter the city. Forced to wait on the sandbanks at the border Snout meets fellow seahorses, pipefish and seadragons from across the kingdom who are also desperate to share important news.
Snout is determined to help but unwittingly uncovers a secret about the president that will not only put him and his baby in danger but the future of all Seahorses.