Firework Maker's Daughter - Opera at the Royal Opera House

A while back one of my friends was asking about books with quality child heroins that she could read with her daughter, the one that came to mind was Philip Pullman's The Firework Maker's Daughter.  This was one of his earlier books before His Dark Materials and when he was an out and out children's writer.  It follows the adventures of Lila who's dream to follow in her father's footsteps to be a real firework maker is blocked because she is a girl; along the way she meets a lovesick elephant, some incompetent pirates and a terrifying fire fiend.

There is a tried and tested formula for making children's films and plays (I'm sure it was pioneered by Victorian pantomime) of ensuring that sufficient jokes are provided to keep parent's entertained while sufficient slapstick is provided to keep the kids happy.  This did not follow the same pattern at all, and to its strength.

From the opening projection "Do this at home... But don't tell dad."  Nearly all the moments of humour were set at a level that I could easily enjoy with my children and the only real piece of slapstick that comes to mind was when the hapless Rambashi revealed he was a pirate "give us all your money!" he demanded; Lila responds "But I've given you all your money [as payment for crossing the river]".  "Well," responds Rambashi "you know what we'll do with your money, throw it in the river!"  Well I laughed, and so did my children.

Musically I found it very accessible; much of it was based around an oriental sounding pentatonic scale.  There were moments of referencing the operatic heritage; the lovesick elephant's aria and firework displays from German and Italian firework makers with faux Wagner and Italian opera respectively.  But one of the most magical moments was the use of onstage puppets used to project parts of the story onto screens.

Ignite 2011 at Royal Opera House

Opera House?  With Kids?  Are you mad?  You asked that last year.

Oh; sorry.  So its really just a venue for another art show.  Well; it was last year.  This year was a bit different.

The kids amuse themselves while we drink coffee

In what way?  did they expect you to understand the inner workings of a paper crane?  No; but it was all about ballet and music; like you would have expected from a venue devoted to opera and music?  Err, yes.

Last year they seemed very welcoming to such a young audience?  Same this year? They were very helpful; on no less than four occasions in the one hour we were there for I was warned that some exhibits were not appropriate for children.

What did they make of it?  Most of them just played around while we (grown ups) drunk coffee.  Then? We went to the South Bank and played in the disappearing rooms.

Do say: Oh well, win some lose some.

Don't say: I don't know if you've been warned but some exhibits are not appropriate for children.

What: Deloitte Ignite 2011
Where: Royal Opera House
Getting there: The opera house is in Covent Garden and only a short walk from Covent Garden tube station
Cost: Free for most activities
Again: possibly; but for kids it wasn't even half as good as last year.

Human planet? What other planet were you expecting? haha; to be honest, with my beautiful kids any planet wouldn't surprise me. I thought it was my job to provide the cheap gags sorry!

So what was Human planet in the park? Big screen showing of the TV show? Not far off; it was music from the various cultures from the show performed by members of said cultures. This was more about the music than the cultures so more like a micro-Womad.

Three children at Womad; sounds like fun. they also had a number of children's activities to inspire the little wonders to be tomorrow cultural leaders:

Proms poetry - Michael Rosen did not lead us on a bear hunt but did guide us through making a poem of our own based on a rhythmic structure. I helped 7-year-old write a poem about going to the beach while 5-year-old drew pictures of trains and 3-year-old jumped on me.

Junk Samba - made a shaker out of an old water bottle and then made music by shaking and hitting a tea tray with a wooden spoon. cocophonous fun? worked surprisingly well and all three loved it.

Head dress making - sticking feathers and things to a headband; to be worn at the children's parade. Did they? no; conversation went a bit like:
Me: "do you want to join in with the parade"
Children look desparingly at the parade
All "No"
7-year-old: "it won't make me famous"

So did they walk away full of the wonders of the world around them? sadly not; there could have been more about the people making the music which I think would have engaged them a lot more but, that said, they did have a great time and I think they all got something out of it.

Was there more? there was a PROM concert in the Albert Hall tied in but we, sadly, didn't go.

What: Proms Plus Family: Human Planet in the Park
Where: Albert Memorial; Kensington Gardens
Getting there: Short walk from South Kensington tube station
Cost: Free
Again: The BBC run family events connected to the PROMS every summer; I'll definitely look out for others. This year there will be a family concert based around horrible histories (sadly we can't go)

Ignite 2010 at the Royal Opera House

Three below 7 at an opera; are you mad? clearly; but this was not an opera and was 6 below 7 (with more adults) So what was it? The Royal Opera House's annual contemporary arts festival "Ignite" now in its third year So what was it? Well... on the theme of forests around the world the ROH was taken over by various performance and visual artists for the weekend. Kids are very welcome (in fact actively encouraged to much of it). It was fun, atmospheric, educational; what more could you ask for?

Fun? The opening exhibit was essentially a large number of very large balloons; easily big enough for the kids to sit on jump on, etc. BANG! only once "how many is that?" I asked the curator; "I've got twice the number I need" was the response. And what did this have to do with forests? No idea, but it was very fun; in fact this proved so popular that it was neigh on impossible to drag them to...

Atmospheric? the smaller of the ROH's main performance spaces was converted into a forest made with old telegraph poles; a floor of recycled rubber from tiers (I think) provided a convincing forest floor and a background of John Cage or Javanese Gamalan provided the soundtrack. Wildlife? 1000 paper cranes were suspended in a large rectangle making a screen with a film projected on it.

And educational? An exhibition of an archaeological dig which took place in Germany uncovering a house made almost entirely of sweets and gingerbread. A truly exceptional piece of work revolutionising, for ever, the way we will look at Hansel and Gretel. It's all true? "Well, clearly Englebert took some liberties with the opera but everything else; of course" the curator; dressed in long white lab coat and thick rim glasses urnestly tells the children.

If you tell a joke in the forest and no-one is there to laugh; is it still a joke?

What: Deloitte Ignite 2010
Where: Royal Opera House
Getting there: The opera house is in Covent Garden and only a short walk from Covent Garden tube station
Cost: Free for most activities
Again: Yes; if it is half as good as this year we are still in for a treat

Weather day at the Royal Institution

Is that the The Royal Institute of Michael Fariday fame? that's the one! Not exactly child's play then. well... they do the famous children's lectures every Christmas so they at least know a bit about child's play and if you surround any self respecting child with things to play with you will get child's play.

So what was it? dotted around the institute were various experiments hosted by everyone in science from student to professor and from water to fire all around a theme of what makes the weather everywhere you go-o-o you always enough of that.

What worked? probably my favourite was the fire tornado (see picture) one could also make a whirlpool or a cloud in pop bottles, others that stood out were experiments with infra red cameras and pulling apart a vacuum sealed ball. What didn't? it was too humid for the Van de Graaff and we never did find the top of the barometer! What else was there? The buggies liked making snowflakes and a sundial and finally they had a weather balloon. All experiments were wonderfully set amongst the grand setting of tomes such as "The electrician 1891"

Does the sundial work? To demonstrate how it would work we shone a torch at it to show what the sun would do; "it won't really work in here though because there isn't any sun" I pointed out. "Yes it does," came the response "look its 11 o'clock"!

Where does bad light go? To a prism!

What: Family fun day
Where: Royal institution of Great Britain
Getting there: Walk from Oxford Circus or Green Park
Cost: £5 adults; £3 children
Again: Yes; they do several such events although none are currently on their events list.

The culture line

There is an article about this on the London for Kids blog on golondon.about.

It seems that some South and East museums on the new East London Overground line (formerly the East London Line) have got a web page of all their museums together. Looks like a great way of exploring the new places this opens up; more to come I think...

Museum of London

Haven't you already been there? yes, but... and you didn't really like it? no, but... So why this? Well, when we visited nearly two years ago half the museum didn't exist, or wasn't open and the buggies were all a lot younger.

So what's new? Essentially the last visit took us from the stone age through the Romans up to the middle ages and then stopped. This is upstairs; downstairs the story continues through to the modern day. I take it you only bothered with the downstairs. We did the first bit in order; the fire of London had gone but the prehistoric exhibition was still there and the kids enjoyed it just as much as last time, if not more. The middle ages had a reconstruction of a Saxon house giving them a chance to play at witches and look at a thatch roof close up.

And downstairs? We went the wrong way round starting from the modern day (obscure sculpture giving one of those moments when you're asked "What's that?" and can only answer "I don't know") back to the 18th Century. Anything worth recommending? In the 18th Century? Yes, the mock-up of Vauxhall Pleasure Garden's was excellent Complete with Scrumpets? Err, no, but some terrific hats! and in another time? The Victorian street was quite good but took a while to get them past the Victorian toy shop window at the start. They also had a lot of use of touch screen table devices which for older buggies would probably work well. Finally a display of modern London landmarks complete with a projected river that showed ripples when you walked over it provided a lot of entertainment.

"London has now become almost like a gigantic frog! With its long tongue it draws curious insects from all over the world inside itself!" - Mehmet Ildan.