Cranleigh Abu Dhabi's Beautiful World opera wins Arts Programme of the Year

Cranleigh Abu Dhabi's performing arts team won the Drama/Arts Programme of the Year award at the Education Journal Middle East Awards.

The Beautiful World Opera Project saw 80 students devise, create and perform an original opera in less than five days, drawing inspiration from a poem written by the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

Students who participated in the project worked with calligraphy artist Narjes Noureddine and Karen Gillingham from London's Opera House. Everything, from set design to costumes, and dance choreography to musical libretto, was created by the students themselves. It made such an impact that the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development requested that it be brought back as part of its 45th National Day celebrations in December 2016.

Commenting on the scope of work the project entailed, director of performing arts Susan Hamilton said: "It was an organic evolution. We didn't have a clear idea how it's going to go when we started with this poem. It was always about the process, we never knew quite how it was going to respond and how the actual performance was going to go.

"I think it challenged everybody. It raised the bar, everybody had to just go that little bit further. We really, really relied on every single person."

The music department at The Millennium School Dubai was the highly commended team. Other shortlisted nominees included: Our Own English High School, Sharjah - Girls, Victoria International School of Sharjah, and GEMS Wellington Academy - Silicon Oasis.

The Education Journal Middle East Awards were held on May 3 at Grosvenor House Dubai.

The event was sponsored by STS, Atlab, TELLAL Institute, Evolve Uniforms, iCademy Middle East, and Risalla Consulting.