AN exciting new music project has been launched at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester.

Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel is being put on by the Pimlott Foundation next February with a cast of professional singers and musicians as well as children from local schools.

Since the summer, working in close partnership with the Mercury and the Essex Music Hub, the foundation has been going into primary and secondary schools introducing them to the themes of the story but also the wonders of opera itself.

Daniela Bechly, who set up the foundation in 2007 in memory of her husband, theatre and opera director Steven Pimlott, is heading up the team and as an acclaimed soprano herself will also be performing in the production.

“The idea came from a little chat around my kitchen table,” she says, “and from that tiny seed of an idea we now have this brilliant team on board, an orchestra, lighting designer, and of course this incredible schools programme.

“All the workshops have gone extremely well so far and it has been amazing to see how they have entered into the world of opera so comfortably.”

Together with Mark Austin, the musical director of Opera South and the Faust Ensemble, the production will be directed by Penny Cliff, of the Tell Theatre Company in London, who very successfully staged the Pimlott Foundation’s first opera production, the Magic Flute, back in 2008.

Helen Thorne, schools co-ordinator for the Foundation, adds: “We’ve had great support from the teachers and without them none of this would have happened. This is all leading up to the production in February when we are hoping to have quite a few of the children involved in the workshops appearing in the opera, which I’m sure will be an unforgetable experience.”

Tickets for Hansel and Gretel are now available from the Mercury box office on 01206 573948.