The Power of Opera to Unite
- B'Opera
- Feb 11
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 13
As we entered the ward, a father rushed toward us, his eyes shining. His wife, seated at the bedside, smiled shyly and nodded encouragingly. Doctors clustered around the couple’s baby.
His words spilled out in excitement. We had sung to their newborn just last week. As we did, she stopped crying and drifted off to sleep. He had recorded the moment and sent it to his brother, who was deeply moved. His brother compared it to a scene from The Shawshank Redemption, where Andy Dufresne plays a duet from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro over the prison loudspeakers, bringing the entire facility to a standstill.
Apparently, we had the voices of angels.
They were overjoyed that we had returned. Would we sing for the baby again?
She had a name now.
Before we could respond, he was eagerly showing us a video of his brother playing that iconic Shawshank scene, animatedly explaining how our singing had evoked similar emotions.
As this Muslim family referenced a European opera duet to describe the depth of their feelings, I was struck by the profound power of music to transcend culture, language, and tradition.
We don’t typically sing opera on the hospital wards, where our repertoire leans more toward gentle lullabies, folk arrangements, action songs, and melodies in various languages that hold personal meaning for the families. Yet this baby’s uncle saw a connection between our song and that transcendent Mozart duet that momentarily dissolves the walls of Shawshank Prison, uniting its inhabitants in shared wonder.
At B’Opera, we craft first experiences of opera that invite and engage audiences of all ages, backgrounds, and beliefs. This work has the power to bring people together, to break down barriers, and to remind individuals that their voices matter, that they can tell stories, convey messages, and, ultimately, change the world.
We are making opera in a way that is the very antithesis of elitism.
The babies who once attended B’Opera in their earliest days now return as confident five, six, and seven-year-olds, fully immersed in our performances. They sit in the heart of the action, engaging with ease, not disruptive, but actively participating, singing, moving, and responding with a sense of ownership.
These are children who will grow into creative thinkers, adaptable to an ever-changing world. They will know how to present themselves, how to persuade others to listen, and how to appreciate and interact with theatre, music, and the arts throughout their lives.
With sweeping national and local funding cuts to opera - (Birmingham still boasts the iconic Birmingham Opera Company, but Welsh National Opera’s education work in Birmingham and the Black Country and their touring schedule at the Hippodrome have been vastly reduced) - the challenge is to find the next step for the diverse and engaged opera audiences we’ve cultivated over the last few years at B’Opera.
The conversation with that father in Birmingham Children’s Hospital was just one of many we’ve had—heartfelt reactions to the power of the human voice, from people of all ages, backgrounds, religions, and identities.
In The Shawshank Redemption, Red (Morgan Freeman) reflects on that moment of music:
“I would like to think they were singing about something that was so beautiful it can’t be expressed in words and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a grey place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away. For the briefest moment, every last man in Shawshank felt free.”
We will continue to do everything in our power to bring beautiful music into the lives of as many families as possible—so that, no matter their circumstances, they too may hear and connect with their own inner freedom.
Zoë Challenor is the Director of B’Opera (bop-ra), a baby opera company based in Birmingham and the West Midlands. B’Opera are Regular Visiting Artists at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
Zoë shares:
“I created B'Opera to bring together the two things I love most—music and diverse communities. The popular press often presents these as an unlikely combination, but I know from experience that they are not.
When I first launched B'Opera’s First Songs sessions at Birmingham Hippodrome, only four people attended. Within three weeks, we had 70 participants, and the Hippodrome added an extra session to meet demand. Our room often resonated with 16 different languages, with families from an extraordinary range of backgrounds.
When we staged Alice and the Library Tree, a Hippodrome sound engineer observed, ‘This is not what I expect an opera audience to look like.’ He was referring not just to the age, but also the diversity of backgrounds of the audience.
The richness of their origins speaks volumes about the universal appeal of what we do.
Creating high-quality musical experiences for the youngest audiences, with love and a desire to connect beyond perceived barriers, has drawn a broad and engaged community to our work, and these babies and toddlers will be the future of opera.”
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