Inspired by the much-loved children’s story by Nicola Davies and Laura Carlin, The Promise brings together a team of talented opera makers to create a
multi-dimensional piece of story-telling theatre for families, which places community at its heart.

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"Green spread through the city like a song..."

More than just a performance, The Promise aspires to forge a more connected society, to promote the nurturing of kindness between people, and to create a group of forest guardians who go on to sow acorns and plant forests themselves.
 

Part opera, part environmental event, The Promise, will act as a tool for communal healing and will curate a space for social change, encouraging its audience to come together to take personal and collective action on the climate crisis. The Promise leaps naturally into Operatic adaptation; at its heart it is a story about a lost girl who finds herself. Her transformation and that of the city and people surrounding her through the seeds she plants, will speak powerfully through operatic development, her growth and the blossoming of nature mirrored perfectly in Daniel Saleeb's music.
 

The Promise is currently in rehearsal and will tour in July 2023. It has been developed in collaboration with Key Stage 2 children in schools in Cumbria, Tower Hamlets and Leeds.
 

The Promise is supported by Arts Council England, Cumbria Action for Sustainability, Mila Charitable Trust, Three Monkies, Edith M Ellis Trust, and developed in collaboration with Workington Nature Partnership, Community Forest Trust, Cumbria Music Education Hub, THAMES, Without Walls Blue Print, Wild Rumpus, Rosehill, Florence Arts Centre, Slung Low, Poplar Union and International Festival Milton Keynes