Let's Make an Opera

Let's Make an Opera is a dramatic work composed by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Eric Crozier.

The original text

Subtitled An Entertainment for Young People, the work consists of three acts, the first two being in the form of a play illustrating the preparation and rehearsal of The Little Sweep, the opera which is performed in the third act.

The piece has the following structure:

Part One (The Play): The performance begins with a play that shows the audience (and a cast of adult and children actors) in the process of writing, casting, and rehearsing a brand-new opera.

Part Two (The Opera): The second half is the finished one-act opera, titled The Little Sweep.

Audience participation was built directly into the show, teaching the crowd four "audience songs" to be sung from their seats at key moments to help the protagonists in the story.

It was first performed on 14 June, 1949, by the English Opera Group in the Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh'

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1960: Premiered in South Africa at the newly renamed Alexander Theatre in Braamfontein (formerly known as the Reps Theatre). The full piece was done, including its opera, The Little Sweep), and highly celebrated by audiences and critics, and served as the South African debut for the performer and singer Vivienne Adley, who had returned home after her studies and West End tenure in London.