Families gathered at Fairview Elementary School’s gymnasium Tuesday night for a performance of “Mooch the Magnificent,” an opera created to be accessible to younger audiences. The performance marked the 25th anniversary of Bridges Musical Arts Youth Organization Orchestra, which celebrated by collaborating with Reimagining Opera for Kids and Stages Bloomington.
Bridges MAYO Orchestra is a local organization dedicated to creating a space for youth ages 8-18 to gain orchestral experience through different ensembles and opportunities. For its 25th anniversary, the organization collaborated with two other local youth theater organizations, merging their talents for a unique experience for the kids.
Originally commissioned for Reimagining Opera for Kids’ 2012-13 season, “Mooch the Magnificent” is based on emeritus IU professor Scott Russell Sanders’ novel “The Engineer of Beasts.”
The novel follows 13-year-old Mooch in a post-apocalyptic world after humans have fled to live in domed cities. Within these cities, the only animals allowed are mechanical, all of which live in mechanized zoos. Troublemaker Mooch meets zoo owner Orlando Spinks, who lets her live with him in the zoo while she adjusts the mechanics of his animals to rebel against him. The novel explores themes of environmentalism and animal activism.
Sanders and composer Lauren Bernofsky partnered to transform the novel into a 40-minute opera performed by professional singers and aimed at entertaining all ages, specifically children.
A defining aspect of this performance was how Bernofsky worked to simplify some of the music so an eight-member child ensemble could perform alongside the four professionals from Reimagining Opera for Kids.
Alongside the actors, the Bridges MAYO Orchestra, filled with youth and a few adults, performed the orchestral parts.
“This is a tricky thing, because I wrote it for professionals,” Bernofsky said. “It’s not super difficult, but piece is definitely not children’s music in the sense that children can easily play it, so the instrumental parts are sort of moderate difficulty.”
Sara Dailey Muñoz, an adult member of Reimagining Opera for Kids, played Mooch in Tuesday night’s performance. It was a reprisal of her role, as she played Mooch before with Reimagining Opera for Kids’ Brown County Chamber Fest.
Muñoz has worked for Reimagining Opera for Kids for three seasons now. She joined the organization in 2023 because she was passionate about creating more accessibility for children to enjoy opera and operatic spaces.
“Any amount of live theater is just really good for kids and exposing them to something called opera that they have a good time with means that they’re way more likely to engage with it in the future,” Muñoz said.
For this production, there were a total of six hours of allotted rehearsal time for the children in the orchestra and onstage to learn music, lines and stage directions before showcasing it to the audience. Within that time, only about two and a half hours were spent with the orchestra collaborating with the actors.
Due to the small period the children got to rehearse, Muñoz said she is proud of how the performance of “Mooch the Magnificent” turned out. She also said she enjoyed watching the children grow in just that small amount of time.
“It was really, really cool to see them, like, blossom and, like, they really came out of their shells throughout the process,” Muñoz said.
Annalise Cain, the team programming coordinator at Stages Bloomington, helped recruit performers, advertise and design costumes for “Mooch the Magnificent.”
Cain said she thought the programming for this performance was special because it was not something that she gets to see often and provided a great learning opportunity for children.
“I think it’s also really special that, like, every aspect of the performance has kid involvement,” Cain said. “It’s like they’re in the orchestra too. I don’t get the opportunity to see many, like, many kids perform music.”
