Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Megg Nicol and David Stoll
The Drummer Boy of Waterloo (2015)
- Novello & Co Ltd (World)
- solovoices + childrch; 1.0.1.1/1.1.0.0/perc/pf/2vn.va.vc
- Children's Choir
- Solo Voices (children)
- 1 hr
- Megg Nicol and David Stoll
Programme Note
The opera tells the story of Edward Drew a young lad, who was apprenticed to work in a northern textile mill when his mother died. He’d never known his father, but his mother told him he was a fine man, a soldier who had gone off to fight for his country and that Edward should always be proud of him.
Life was not easy at the mill and the children often had to work more than ten hours a day but eventually he made friends and settled down.
There was music in him, and the machines had rhythm of their own; inside his head the rhythm didn’t stop even when thejubilee opera machines did. Table tops, crates, barrels; everything became a drum with Edward around, and the other children were happy to join in with the music. When Edward was told that the army used boys to send drum signals on the battlefield – and that he would be suitable – he was very excited. However, the mill owner had other ideas: to him, the children were simply machinery to be worked until it is of no more use. How Edward escaped, and what happened to him at Waterloo, is the story of this opera.
The tale is told by mill children as they play outside in the courtyard of the factory on a Sunday afternoon when the machines have stopped. The children take on the different roles and use scraps of material and bits of machinery to play out the events, inspired by their vivid imagination and memories of their friend, Edward.
The Drummer Boy of Waterloo tells a story of an historical time, but by giving a voice to children who are cast into an adult world too early, the themes of the opera are timeless and still highly relevant.
David Stoll
Life was not easy at the mill and the children often had to work more than ten hours a day but eventually he made friends and settled down.
There was music in him, and the machines had rhythm of their own; inside his head the rhythm didn’t stop even when thejubilee opera machines did. Table tops, crates, barrels; everything became a drum with Edward around, and the other children were happy to join in with the music. When Edward was told that the army used boys to send drum signals on the battlefield – and that he would be suitable – he was very excited. However, the mill owner had other ideas: to him, the children were simply machinery to be worked until it is of no more use. How Edward escaped, and what happened to him at Waterloo, is the story of this opera.
The tale is told by mill children as they play outside in the courtyard of the factory on a Sunday afternoon when the machines have stopped. The children take on the different roles and use scraps of material and bits of machinery to play out the events, inspired by their vivid imagination and memories of their friend, Edward.
The Drummer Boy of Waterloo tells a story of an historical time, but by giving a voice to children who are cast into an adult world too early, the themes of the opera are timeless and still highly relevant.
David Stoll
Media
Some excerpts of the production by Jubilee Opera in the Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh in November 2015.
Scores
Preview the score