Presenting Cycle Song – A Community Opera Celebrating Scunthorpe Olympian Lal White

Preparations are well underway among the regions schools, choral societies and performance arts groups in preparation for a fantastic new piece of performance art celebrating the life and achievements of Scunthorpe's only Olympian, Albert “Lal” White.

A few weeks ago we published our first article about Lal documenting his life in Scunthorpe, his sporting achievements and also the innovations he brought to the sport.

http://www.visitscunthorpe.com/ScunthorpeNews/headline/Lal-White-A-Cycling-Great

Now however we can reveal more details about the exciting new show being put together featuring 1,500 performers from North Lincolnshire.

Billed as a “Community Opera” the event forms part of the 2012 Olympic celebrations, and intends not just to entertain the community of North Lincolnshire, but to also engage a large section of that community as performers.

We interviewed Sue Hollingworth the Musical Director of Cycle song, and asked her why it was billed as an opera. Sue told us that firstly the term opera refers to the performance being sung to music, as opposed spoken. Many people mistake opera as being sung just in Italian, this is not the case, the performance will acted out on stage and will be sung by a enormous choir.

Sue her self conducts Scunthorpe COOP Junior choir as well as 5 other choirs around the country, and has had to make careful plans on just how to teach and deliver the music and songs to all the choir members.

Sue told us that initially they have started out by teaching teachers and choir leaders who have then taken their respective songs and parts and taught them to their own choirs. As the date gets nearer rehearsals will get larger and larger as more of the choirs, singers and performers gather together to rehearse.

The music will be performed by North Lincolnshire music support services which will consist of over 100 pupils from North Lincolnshire schools. In total 28 primary schools and 3 secondary schools will provide 800 singers, with dancers coming from two other secondary schools. These school children will be supported by 8 other local adult community choirs.

In addition to the 100 strong school orchestra various other local groups musical groups will take part ranging from brass bands to a string quartet. It is estimated that in total 1,500 local residents will be involved in the performance.

The event is scheduled to take place on Brumby Hall athletics ground on the 14^th and 15^th of July, tickets are available from the Baths Hall, priced £10, £8 concessions, £30 for a family ticket (2 adults, 2 children).  http://www.scunthorpetheatres.co.uk/performance/19176.aspx

In the mean time, we've been given some Cycle Song badges to give away to readers, any one wanting a badge just email your details through to Editors@VisitScunthorpe.Com telling us where to send it, and answer the following question

“What invention was Lal White credited with” - If you're not sure, then the answer is on this web site somewhere!!

Winners will be picked at random.