Young voices bring ‘The Little Sweep’ to Sarasota Opera House

In a rehearsal room in the Sarasota Opera House, dozens of young performers bring their voices together in support of a young boy who is indentured as a chimney sweep to support his injured father and treated cruelly by his employer.

The cast of the Sarasota Youth Opera’s new production of Benjamin Britten’s “The Little Sweep” sings with spirit, encouraged by music director Jesse Martins, who conducts from a chair, watching the action among the young singers ages 8 to 18.

Director Martha Collins, who is staging the show for the fourth time since 2005, occasionally jumps into the scene to fill in for a missing performer, making sure everyone has a partner to play off and sing to. During a runthrough of a wordless prologue, in which cast members set up a children’s nursery with blocks, a rocking chair, a bed and toy horses, she encourages the performers to remember who they are and why they’re on stage.

“It’s a wonderful story, and with the prologue we created, there are lots of opportunities for the kids,” said Collins, a former opera singer who stages at least one mainstage production for the Sarasota Opera each season.

Years ago, the company got permission from the Britten estate to change the setting from 19th century England to Boston. “We rewrote some of the Britishisms,” Collins said. “We thought the kids might not understand them.” The original production began with an extended “Let’s Put on an Opera,” which got audience members involved with learning music, and Sarasota Opera has created its own prologue.

“We created a pantomime, which for non-theatergoers is magic. It’s amazing to watch the kids see the set coming together,” Collins said.

Collins and Martens are working with 67 young singers, plus four adult performers, marking a return to some sort of normalcy for the Youth Opera. The last production in 2018 featured 70 singers.

COVID “decimated our program,” but “we’re really growing again. We missed some years of continuity to let Maestro Jesse help develop their voices, but we have a wonderful new crop of singers. This is a wonderful piece for that to grow,” Collins said.

Among the performers is Sofia Scheck, a student at Manatee School for the Arts, who sings the role of the nursemaid Rowan, who is coaxed by her charges to help the little sweep named Sammy.

Scheck who has been performing in youth opera productions since “Rootabaga Country” in 2017, said “there’s a lot more challenging music to perform” in “The Little Sweep.”

Singing a role often performed by an adult has been an educational experience, Scheck said.

“They treat me like an equal,” she said. “It feels so nice to be treated like that and to feel respected by them. Usually I’m the one who has to respect her elders.”

Martens said Scheck has taken on a role with “a much more demanding vocal range, and the dramatic requirement is for a more mature voice. Her voice has these qualities.”

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Collins said it helps that Scheck is also physically taller than some of the other kids. “That makes it a bit more believable that she could be a governess.”

Scheck said she has made a lot of friends in the Sarasota Youth Opera over the years. “I like the environment and being able to put something on a stage. I love putting the personality and emotions into a character and what they’re saying and what it means to be that character.”

Two different casts will perform the opera during the weekend. The adult singers include Paul Hill, Jake Stamatis, Sarahann Duffy and Virginia Mims.

Collins said the show runs slightly more than an hour. “Because it is short and action packed, it is a great opera to bring the family to. Little kids get engaged with all the colorful lighting and the music.”

‘The Little Sweep’

By Benjamin Britten. Jesse Martens, music director; Martha Collins, stage director. 5 p.m. Nov. 4 and 12:30 p.m. Nov. 5, Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota. 941-328-1322; sarasotaopera.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota Youth Opera sings inspiring tale of ‘The Little Sweep’