Photos by Khalid al Busaidi.
The Education Team at the Royal Opera House Muscat has been making a huge effort to reach out to young people in the community this season to encourage and nurture a deep love of reading, writing, and the theatre, connecting communities through enriching cultural experiences. Commenting on the initiative, Artistic Director of ROHM, Umberto Fanni stated, “As an institution, we are committed to bringing the best creative works from around the world to keep inspiring our younger generations.”
ROHM hosted the creative writer, Elisabetta Dami over two days last week for creative reading sessions, highlighting the adventures of her beloved characters Geronimo Stilton and his sister Thea. These exclusive, engaging presentations, with 60 children aged 7 to 12 years per session, allowed students from various schools around Muscat to discover the much-loved Geronimo Stilton stories. They highlighted the adventures of Geronimo Stilton, a charming mouse journalist whose humorous and heart-warming stories have captured the imagination of children worldwide. They explore the art of storytelling with a workshop on ways of bringing characters to life on the written page with the author herself. During one session, an Omani Sign Language interpreter was also offered.
On Thursday 7th - Elisabetta's 66th birthday - selected students from Royal Flight and Indian School Wadi Kabir attended the workshop in the Music Library, and learnt that Geronimo Stilton was born in a children’s hospital and is always humorous and full of hope. He is a charming journalist Mouse, aged 35 and lives on Mouse Island. His stories have positive outcomes, always written from the heart. Key values which his books try to instil in young readers are loyalty, honesty, kindness, integrity, courage. Through the joy of reading and friendships they encourage respect of other people, families, cultures and books.
Good values are like a Golden Compass. They portray a network of friends building cooperation. Good books are windows on the future and stay with us all our lives; books are powerful. Elisabetta, full of slogans and mottos, started to write books when she was 7 years old – their age. Geronimo’s sister Thea Stilton, aged 25 was written for girls. ‘Let’s Fly on the Wings of Imagination’ is another mantra. She has sold over 182 million books worldwide translated into over 50 languages.
Then a surprise: two life-sized characters of Geronimo and Thea appeared, inspiring the children to stand and dance along with, “Giochiamo Insiemi”, (Let’s play together) Italian Rap. A second, more lyrical song, “Cerca la Felicità” (Look for happiness) got a beautiful response from the dancing children. Elisabetta Dami asked why the children were here today, and who would now like to become writers? ‘Believe in, persevere and follow your dreams’ she nudged. The Geronimo stories were originally conceived to bring comfort and joy to children in hospitals, reflecting the author's dedication to volunteering and philanthropy. She added, “The younger generations are our hope for a better future, and it is our responsibility to support their growth by passing on culture and values.”
A new monthly event began last Saturday, inspired by a season of fairy tales at ROHM. “Let’s Read”, a theatrical presentation of stories and characters with ‘YouThinkers’, explored the magical tale of “Beauty and the Beast”. It anticipates the spectacular ‘Show on Ice’ coming to ROHM on January 2nd - 4th 2025.
'YouThinkers’ is a Thespian Youth Organisation, and Faisal Al Ajmi and Meera Al Shezawi, who met at the GuTech Theatre Group, presented both Arabic and English sessions, together with Arabic Sign Language interpreter, Huda Al Amri.
Interaction between readers and children began immediately with the subject of “Beauty and the Beast”. They started with a coordination circle-game activity as an ice-breaker, led by Faisal. Seated in soft red velvet armchairs, Meera asked the children to close their eyes, and she began reading. She asked them what they saw and got answers of castles, houses, rain or sun! The link with this text is of course that Beauty loves reading – she is a ‘bookworm’! The children shared their favourite story books and answered the question, if they ever did anything brave – like Beauty. The format then, is not just reading through without comment; each page is interpreted and discussed; an early introduction to analysis of subject and content. The moral of the Beauty tale is that love and beauty come from within – it is not just skin deep.
In a clever expansion of the assignment which this observer wasn’t expecting, it was now the children’s turn to read the literature, a page each. This is excellent practice as big or long words have already been modelled and possibly learnt. Each student received a copy of the booklet, charmingly published by ROHM. Young Arya, brimming with performance confidence, was definitely the star English reader!
The next session will be on Saturday 14th December with, “One Thousand and One Nights” in preparation for the Mariinsky Ballet, Vladivostok on 6th, 7th February.
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” will be on 11th January 2025, ahead of a screening on 10th and 11th April with live orchestra.
Robin Hood is scheduled for 22nd February before the children’s opera by Michele Dall’Ongaro on 18th and 19th April.
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