Cast of the Canticles, Westminster Abbey, 2002 (Photo: Suzanne Jansen)

When an MP in the 1990s was quoted as saying that the homeless were the people you step over when you come out of the opera house, the residents at the Passage nightshelter in Westminster saw this as an opportunity to turn the tables – if they were in a professional opera production themselves, that would help change the public’s perception of them and turn stigma into celebration.

We ran a pilot project, the Little Prince Project in 2000 which involved workshops at the Passage Nightshelter over 12 weeks to stage the children’s opera, The Little Prince. This was performed at the Royal Opera House Linbury Studio with children from St Peter’s Primary School, Eaton Square, staff from the Theatre Museum and a professional cast. The project saw many of the participants flourish in confidence and proved to us and the staff of the centre that there was an identified need for work of this kind. Streetwise Opera was born.

“Taking part in the Little Prince Project gave me a sense of purpose and helped to recover my feelings of self-worth at a time when my morale and self-esteem were at a very low ebb, and my personal outlook seemed unremittingly bleak. The feelings of elation and accomplishment which I, in common with the other stage-crew, felt standing on the stage to acknowledge the applause at the end of the production were something I will never forget, and played a large part in helping me to overcome my difficulties and start putting my life back into order. I urge you to support Streetwise Opera in their endeavours, so that other homeless people may benefit as I have.”
A client from the Passage Nightshelter, 1999-2000