It's taken two years and £250,000 for Creative Partnerships Tees Valley, led by Carol Alevroyianni, to put an opera about the railways on the map. She talks to VIV HARDWICK about using virtually every corner of the North-East to turn a dream into a reality

WHEN children from the Tees Valley area were asked which things in the region made them proudest, just two names dominated the shortlist: Middlesbrough Football Club and the railways.

With £250,000 to spend on turning one of these subjects into an opera suggested by Teesside international singer Suzannah Clarke, Carol Alevroyianni, director of Creative Partnerships Tees Valley, opted for the subject which truly reflected the area's past, present and future. . . the railways.

Now a two-year journey is reaching its destination as the opera project Blaze prepares to shout "all aboard" to 300 paying passengers a night at Darlington's Railway Museum in North Road for a five-night run from July 2731.

At least 100 children plus professional performers, led by Suzannah, have spent the past year preparing to sing a new work created by Durham City-born composer Will Todd and librettist Toby Satterthwaite.

Early ideas of using Darlington's mainline Banktop Station, to put the opera on board a train or have the audience travelling to the Railway Museum from Stockton and Darlington never made it off the platform.

Carol (whose surname comes from the Greek word flour john, the flour supplier to troops) felt that if the project had approached railway companies three years ago the outcome would probably have been more favourable, but recent health and safety issues have paralysed any attempt to put opera and mainline railways together.

She says: "Luckily there was the fall-back of the original Darlington Station which everyone knew about and people didn't feel that by not co-operating they would be stopping the project.

"I thought of the idea of doing the opera at Darlington Railway station because when I first started this job two years ago when I spoke to children about what made them proud of where they came from, the only things they mentioned were Middlesbrough Football Club and the railway."

Basically she needed something "big, brash and assertive" to help people relate to the Tees Valley area and show them it had interesting arts and lots of heritage, "so the idea of doing a big performance connected with the railway came about".

"Then I got to hear of Suzannah Clarke who was the cultural ambassador for Tees Valley, and at the same time the feedback from schools that they wanted to do singing work."

The next stage involved recruiting Newcastle's Northern Stage, who are the North-East's biggest producing house, but are without premises until 2005 while the Playhouse is rebuilt.

CAROL adds: "We all hoped there would be things like virtual reality installations and that it would involve anything up to 1,000 children. You start off this huge vision and end up with practicalities getting in the way, but I'm very happy with the production we have at the moment."

The schools involved are: West Redcar; Haughton, Darlington; Bishop's Garth, Stockton; Hall Garth, Middlesbrough and English Martyrs, Hartlepool.

"Teachers who came for half-aday, several of them stayed for a full week, so there's been commitment for a long time. Some schools have workshops every night, term after term.

"One of our jobs is to raise aspirations and encourage young people to be ambitious and to dream big dreams and you need to start off with something that shows they can be involved in a groundbreaking and visionary project. There's never been an opera on a railway station before and although it's not a mainline station any more, there is going to be a character getting off a train and walking into the performance and real trains will be involved."

Children have even turned down a rock school opportunity to continue opera rehearsals.

She adds: "I'm fretting about the sound at the moment particularly when you have young voices in the open air. We can't really try it out on the site until the dress rehearsal, so this is a bit for a risk."

A CD that Creative Partnerships plans to hand out to opera-goers is proving to be a challenge over the legalities of copyright and whether it can only be handed out free and not sold during the performances.

But Carol is delighted that children see this kind of problemsolving in action because it helps the thinking skills of tomorrow's workforce.

She appreciates that the Tees Valley area, bordered by Darlington, Stockton, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Redcar, is difficult to define, especially as part of the region was once called Cleveland and others still see themselves as part ofNorth Yorkshire.

"I think you will have really achieved something by just getting the children from the five towns to work together.

"We've been working for two years with the idea of celebrating everything and have an end result for kids to feel they are valued and appreciated. We've had several performances already with a fantastic show at Hartlepool where we had a first run through of the oratorio which brought a lump to your throat."

The event is still looking for sponsors, particularly for a firm to provide an end-of-project party.

Any business interested can contact Carol at Creative Partnerships on 01642 515384.

The opera runs from 7.30pm from Tuesday, July 27, until Friday, July 30, and then from 8.15pm on Saturday, July 31, mainly to allow one of the characters, Moz, to arrive on the Darlington-Saltburn Arriva train during the second half.

Tickets are £7, £5 concessions, £2.50 under-16. Box Office: (01325) 365242.

There is still room for volunteers from performer to programme seller. Ring the Darlington Office of Northern Stage at (01325) 365242 and leave a message for Jo Mayes or email jmayes@nothernstage.co.uk

Published: 24/06/2004