In Autumn 2024 CYO had the amazing opportunity to work with the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. Our young people, led by the CYO Superheroes (our Youth Board) were able to visit the Museum, hear about archaeological finds from our region and then to handle a selection of objects.
From these visits, a story for a new opera emerged. The young people were inspired by the Trumpington Bed Burial to write the story of ghost of a young Saxon girl who meets her modern counterpart. The action takes place on the Trumpington Meadows housing development, where the real Saxon girl was discovered.
Other objects that inspired the story were a string of ancient beads and a child’s footprint, quite literally frozen in time.
From these elements the participants wove a story of two girls, twin sisters across time. It is a story of loss and redemption, of loyalty and friendship, of magic, ghosts and the reward for courage
What we did
During the spring and summer terms of 2025 we ran a series of workshops with the young people. These included:
9 writing workshops: creating the story and turning it into a libretto
Commissioned the composition of extracts, learned and recorded them
Two of participants singing Odilia, the ghost. She has tried to attract Willow’s attention, but Willow has run away.
Willow frantically texts Robyn to tell her about the ghost – libretto reading
Spent a day creating designs based on the opera
The young people involved continued to work independently on these over the following weeks.
Marina (16) created designs for Odilia’s backstory
Hope (13) created designs for Willow and Odilia
This project was made possible with generous support from the University of Cambridge.
Cambridge Youth Opera 
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