I'm emerging from what has been a very difficult two months on the personal level, not just for myself but for a close family member whose private life went pear-shaped in a very distressing way. I've been taking stock of what I do now compared with what I was doing twelve years ago (well, I was also twelve years younger!) and also observing what so many other people are managing to do.

I'm starting to feel like a has-been. Well, of course, the thing about being a has-been is that you HAVE BEEN. You're not a "never-was". And everyone becomes a has-been once they stop doing their thing in the present tense . But now I sit at home and teach people the piano when they come to my house, and enter them for exams. I don't even go out much.

Up till two and a half years ago I was teaching music in primary school and organising a lot of events which gave me a lot of satisfaction - I've always been motivated by achievement. That employment ended rather abruptly, in a manner which makes me very angry if I think about it, so I just don't think about it - I simply made the next day the first day of the rest of my life. I was already past retirement age, and had planned to leave at the end of that year anyway, as my once glorious singing voice had been getting systematically destroyed by my devotion to my job, and though it had been my first instrument and the subject of my teaching diploma, I can't and don't sing at all now, so I don't work with singers either.

Before I moved here, I was teaching privately, after having spent six years teaching secondary music, but I was also, I suppose, a community musician, and in particular I ran at various times a lot of different choirs and singing groups, was musician in residence at an adult day centre, had been musical director to a youth theatre group and a handful of different amateur operatic societies. I could turn my hand to anything vocal. And I also directed and produced fringe opera for several summers in a row, and this included updating and translating operas. I do have quite a lot of "old work" sitting around on my computer.

My decision to shake out of my lethargy came last Saturday afternoon when attending a splendid matinee of Iolanthe by a village operatic society which performs annually in a big barn. In the village where I live I'm sure there are a lot of very talented people, but absolutely nothing is going on. Oh, there are support groups for various ages and needs, and a local history society, but there's no performing arts at all. "Village" is a bit of a misnomer, some call it a suburb, as it's partly conurbated with the city, but it has a Village Centre and an old-fashioned village sign as you come down off the main road. I've mentioned this lack of activity in the past to one or two friends, in the hopes that they might take the very subtle hint and suggest getting together to start something, but they all said they'd be too busy to get involved. So last Saturday I decided I ought to think about Doing Somethng.

So far I haven't Done Anything apart from prepare a facebook group page about light opera in the village, but I haven't got round to contacting anyone to support me in this. What I fancy doing is not starting yet another Gilbert'n'Sullivan society, much as I love it - there's plenty of that going on in and around the city. I fancied something more like I used to do up in Chester and the Wirral. We mostly did "proper" opera but with the sort of slant which made it accessible to a wider group, not only in its appeal for an audience, but in many cases for performing as well.

My thought was that it may be better to start the group by having a production in mind, and my original thought was to do The Beggar's Opera. I made a complete edition of it back in the 1980s when my kids were small, and it's still on my computer. I uploaded about half of it to Score Exchange a few years ago, and indolence has stopped me preparing the rest of it for publication there. The only trouble with the Beggar's Opera is that it needs a big cast - which makes it an ideal project for community performance, I'd love it! - and it's long, takes a lot of work.

So then I thought of one of my other pieces, and that's what I'm working on at the moment. Mozart at the age of 12 produced a one-act Singspiel called Bastien und Bastienne all about two shepherds and a shepherdess. Girl has lost boy, girl gets boy back. Just three singers, not very long. I updated it, moved it into the reception area of a girls' magazine ("Nearly 18", mostly read by 15-year-olds), and called it The Agony Uncle. I grafted in three arias from La Finta Smplice which was composed at about the same time, added an extra character and a chorus of girl readers who sit at the side of the stage reading the magazine and quote from it at relevant moments. I got it done twice and it was enormous fun. Needs a PG certificate, mentions s e x. It's not all singing, in the Singspiel tradition they incorporated dialogue as well.

Now, in a way, it's hardly a "community" piece as it has four soloists who would probably need to be brought in, and the only other performers are probably school kids, who I could recruit from the local secondaries. But it could be a springboard for a group to put on the Beggar's Opera later. I need thinkers and talkers, people to help raise funds, provide scenery and costumes and publicity, who could see the future that could come from a performance which is in the first place mainly "me". I don't really want this group to be mainly me, though I'd like to take an active part in it, obviously.

I'm going to be notifying all the parents of my pupils, and stressing the fact that this is to be the start of something which will involve more people from the village as well as visitors, and notices in a couple of shop windows suggesting that if people are interested in starting a performing arts group (mainly music) to contact me, and then we will have a few heads to put together. If they have any strong ideas about what they want to perform, we can always decide to do that next.

I'd very much live to do The Agony Uncle again, but I still harbour s few doubts as to whether other people will feel it's the right way to start this venture off. I need to get enthusiastic and willing participants, and they may feel not enough involved with it if I do that piece. It got to the stage towards the end of the time we were doing fringe opera that I was handling almost every job there was.

On the other hand, I could just find the singers myself, recruit the girls from school and hope that their parents and families would muck in as organisers.

Any opinions, before I sink back into the lethargy again?

Does your local sixthform run a performing Arts BTec course (or similar)? The students on that might be the sort who would join in with a local production. They might also like the opportunity to take on a role of responsibility (Programmes / direction / publicity / costumes / lighting) as something they could put on their cv at a later date.

As a new project maybe starting smaller with a community choir which could begin with smaller concerts and move on to the sort of thing you are thinking of as it grows.

I live in a very rural area, but the local town has an opera society. Now I would love to join that but I don't have the confidence. So I was thrilled when an Adult Theatre choir was started. Perfect I thought, fun, singing, relaxed, not having to have the best voice, etc etc.

On the whole, we sing songs from the shows and it's fun. We hope to expand and be able to do concerts in the future, but at the moment we don't have the numbers.

So I would second Sbhoa's advice.

Yes, I think that's a good idea - keeping the repertoire fairly light, albeit with one or two more complex items thrown in as you get the feel of the members and see what they want.

Yes, I did think of something like that. The trouble is, I can't train a choir any more, I can't sing now - I mean I really can't. I have a range that goes up to about A above middle C, and that would not inspire confidence in any singers I was trying to work with. So I would have to start by trying to find a conductor. The opera I could manage, I think.

The fringe opera we used to do didn't start as a choir, though. I don't think it's a natural development.

Comments so far are rather "safe", I feel. There's a big difference between starting up a choir and doing a project such as you describe. If you have the enthusiasm, which it sounds as if you do, and experience, then go for your Agony Uncle. I don't live in a village, but people in our town have put on community projects in the past; they're a lot of work, but people remember them.

Now that's an idea. I used to teach the BTec performing arts. Though if someone had approached the college I was working in they would have said they had it all covered. We have two 6th form colleges in our city (one of them with a very high profile) and only one of the comprehensies has a 6th form of its own. Even if they don't do it through the school they might be interested in helping as individuals, so I might have a look and see if any of them are running that course, or alternatively A level drama. Certainly one of my piano pupils is taking that.

To update, what I've done in the last couple of days:
I went to have coffee with a friend (in our weekly "bl***y men" session, sorry guys...) whose little daughter I teach, and she was wildly enthusiastic about getting something done. She's not been a performer herself, but liked the idea of getting people together to put things on, and by the end of the morning we were walking around the village looking at rehearsal and prospective performance venues, had a chat with the local baptist minister who has a church and a family centre to hire cheaply (though what we're doing has to fit within the "ethos" of his church, no hallowe'en parties etc - my Agony Uncle opera is a bit rude... I wonder?) and then to the Village Centre, where we met with another very enthusiastic general manager, who when I used the magic word "community" brightened up further. I told her I was looking to get some performing arts going, she said "am-dram?" very excitedly, and looked even more excited when I said community opera, and asked if she knew The Beggar's Opera (she did). So she's made a few offers of "community hours" for rehearsals etc providing they really are open to members of the community - very keen to promote the place as a village and not a suburb, because we're a bit of both.

I shall be putting out some mini posters soon and contacting some friends and the parents of some pupils; the friend I mentioned immediately reeled off the names of several people she worked with in hospital who she said lived in the village - she practically had them assigned to jobs before she?d even spoken to them!

In my mind, the plan of attack is:
Put on an small production, which at the moment I hope will be The Agony Uncle, as it needs just teenage girls for chorus and I can go into secondary schools to find them. It won't need a lot of money or technical backup

Once established, unless anyone has better ideas, possibly the Beggar's Opera, which I've done before and it included several people who didn't know they could sing, act or dance - a good Community project, I think

and then - here come the delusions of grandeur, but then I think, why not?

...the ultimate community project, surely, involving adults and children in every area of the production from singing and playing to scenery and costume making

Britten's Noye's Fludde!!! but I think that's a few years away yet. depends if I manage to get a lot of the sort of people who love organising things, and can leave me to do the more artistic jobs

I decided the first thing I need to do is to have my score ready. So I've been reviewing and editing The Agony Uncle, and the first seven numbers are now up on Score exchange. (No.8 is proving a bit more recalcitrant, I found I hadn't put things like expression marks or half the dynamics, as it's one of the pieces I imported from La Finta Semplice but I hope I'll have it ready by tomorrow. There are sixteen numbers in the opera altogether, so it looks like I'm almost halfway through, though at least three of those in the second half are a lot longer.

The first section is here:
http://www.scoreexchange.com/scores/127895.html
and the others can be found from a list above the music.

Now I need to get my head round my pupils for the week. Three TG exams next Saturday and seven ABRSM on July 4th (that's only seven sets of results to wait for, though, as three of the second group are Prep Tests)

I organized staging of some historical plays a long time ago. Graphic arts students were very helpful with costumes, and had some great ideas on how to make challenging costumes work. Surprisingly, garden/landscaping centers were also very helpful with materials for sets.

I strongly recommend that you find somebody who will coordinate this type of sponsorship and cooperation...it's worth having one person with time to get it right, because it can benefit the whole community, and not just your production.

Lighting etc....if you are not likely to have a theatre, what are your options for lighting and sound?

Linda, it sounds very exciting and you already have some good feedback/support! Go for it... I think the Alevel students idea is a good one, and the very best of luck to you!! Wish I was closer.....

I've just seen an item about this on BBC Breakfast and it reminded me of this thread!

Swindon the Opera

An Opera about the town performed by people from the town!

Good luck with your project linda.ff - let us know how you get on.