16/03/26
Snappy Operas | Events & Performances
Snappy Operas Festival 2026 Performances
Join us for a national celebration of new opera created and performed by children.
The Snappy Opera Festival 2026 celebrates the creativity, imagination and collaboration of hundreds of young people who have spent this year creating and rehearsing their own mini-operas.
Developed by Mahogany Opera, Snappy Operas are short operas designed especially for children. Created by leading composers and writers in collaboration with young people, each piece brings together the key elements of opera - music, drama and design - in a fun, accessible and bite-sized format.
Over the course of the project, children form their own Snappy Opera Company, working with a team of professional artists to learn music, explore character and movement, and create their own costumes and props. Every role in a Snappy Opera is designed for groups rather than individuals, ensuring that everyone can take part and every contribution matters.
This year, our Snappy Operas Festival also includes projects in special schools, where the operas are adapted to create immersive and sensory musical experiences shaped by the young people themselves. Through movement, sound, storytelling and play, pupils engage with the music in ways that respond to their abilities, interests and ideas.
At the Snappy Opera Festival, these young companies come together to perform their operas with a professional ensemble, sharing their work with families, teachers and local audiences. The result is a joyful festival of bold ideas, imaginative storytelling and the excitement of children discovering the power of music and theatre.
Join us at our upcoming performances...
From dancing sausages to fearless daredevils, beat-boxing foxes to fence-jumping sheep, or mutant ice-creams to a beast with one-hundred eyes, join us to expereince the world of Snappy Operas, and the shared joy of musical stroytelling!
HUMBER REGION GALA PERFORMANCE
Monday 23 & Tuesday 24 March 2026, 4.30pm
Grimsby Auditorium
Book online here
CUMBRIA REGION GALA PERFORMANCE
Thursday 26 March 2026, 6.00pm
Solway Hall, Whitehaven
Book Online here
ROLL UP! CUMBRIA
Thursday 14 & Friday 15 May 2026
Sandside Lodge Special School, Ulverston
Attendance by invite only - for more information please email marc@mahoganyopera.co.uk
ROLL UP! LINCOLNSHIRE
Friday 22 May 2026
Eresby Special School, Lincolnshire
Attendance by invite only - for more information please email marc@mahoganyopera.co.uk
DURHAM REGION GALA PERFORMANCE
Wednesday 1 July 2026, 5.30pm
Gala Theatre, Durham
Booking details to be announced
ROLL UP! DURHAM
Dates to be confirmed
Hope Wood Academy, County Durham
Attendance by invite only - for more information please email marc@mahoganyopera.co.uk
For more information about Snappy Operas and how you can get involved, email our Associate Producer on marc@mahoganyopera.co.uk
The ‘Snappy Operas Festival 2026’ is generously supported by Arts Council England – National Lottery Project Grants, The Radcliffe Trust, The Thistle Trust, The Hadfield Trust, Cumbria Community Foundation, Ernst von Siemens Foundation, Victoria Wood Foundation, BeauxArtz and the donors to our Big Give Christmas Challenge.
