Children’s opera “Pinocchio’s Adventures” has free online premiere

The opera houses are closed. It was therefore with a heavy heart that the Berlin State Opera had to cancel the premiere of “Pinocchio’s Adventures” in front of a live audience. However, in an effort to ensure not all the preparations were in vain, the State Opera decided to stage the production in spite of everything. The SARIAS Foundation worked with the State Opera to create a professional stream, and we are delighted with the result! Pinocchio’s adventurous journey is recounted in an exciting hour-long interplay of music, tableaus and puppetry for children aged 6 and over.

You can watch the video by following the link below:

https://youtu.be/r-YF61MUr00

Everyone knows the story of Pinocchio, whose nose grows longer when he lies…On his journey from animated wooden puppet to a boy of flesh and bone, Pinocchio must survive numerous adventures in which he proves his courage and remains loyal to his father, the woodcarver Gepetto. Along the way, he has to contend with some dangerous characters like the greedy fox and tomcat, shady circus directors and even a giant whale.

Pinocchio learns the hard way that his nose grows inconveniently long when he lies too much, and that there are unpleasant consequences to being lazy, skipping school and spending time in the seemingly heavenly Land of Toys, where no one works. The mysterious fairy with its dark blue hair is always at his side, rescuing him repeatedly and finally bringing him back to his long-lost father.

The children’s opera “Pinocchio’s Adventures” was created by the Italian composer Lucia Ronchetti in 2015, with lyrics closely following the original version of the classic children’s book by Carlo Collodi. The work is being performed in German for the first time at the Berlin State Opera (Unter den Linden).

Soprano Sarah Aristidou portrays the wooden protagonist Pinocchio, while five instrumentalists from the Staatskapelle Berlin assume the roles of the story’s numerous supporting characters.

“Fairy Tales of the World”: our series of books is growing…

The third volume of our picture book series “Fairy Tales of the World” is now finished and ready to go! 

Following on from the story from China, we lingered a little longer in the Far East and travelled to Japan. 

The Land of the Rising Sun harbours a rich treasure trove of fairy tales that have been passed down orally from generation to generation over the centuries. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that Yanagita Kunio (1875-1962), Japan’s first folklorist, collected and wrote down numerous fairy tales from across the country. Our fairy tale “The Sun Knows Everything”, published as an educational adaptation of the fairy tale for children, comes from his collection of Japanese folk tales.

The self-important moles are unhappy because the light from the sun dazzles them. They pretentiously start a war against the sun in order to stop it from shining and draw up a plan… One of them would have to shoot the sun!  But the moles forgot to take the frogs into account. These frogs recognise the great danger to themselves, their children and all life on earth. Will they manage to warn the sun in time?

Berlin-based illustrator Anne Hofmann has brought this delightful fairy tale to life for us with her radiant illustrations.

The fairy tale picture book can now be obtained free of charge from the SARIAS Foundation. If you are interested, just send a short email to info@sariasstiftung2373.live-website.com and we will send you a copy by post. If you are interested in getting hold of several copies, for example for a school class, please contact us and we will be happy to arrange an appointment for you to collect them.

Children’s shoes for Şanlıurfa

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The population of Turkey as of 31 December 2019 is 83,154,997, of which children between the ages of 0 and 14 account for 24.29%, making them a large and important part of the Turkish population. They are the future. We all have a responsibility to uphold children’s rights, because every child has the same right to equal treatment, health, social participation, good opportunities in life and for development, and much more besides.

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The majority of children in Turkey live in rural areas and are therefore closer to nature. The children spend much of their free time there playing, running around and climbing outdoors with their friends and siblings. The SARIAS Foundation heard about a middle school in Şanlıurfa, in the south-east of Turkey, where the shoes of some pupils in the 5th to 8th grades had suffered from playing a lot of football, climbing and running around in the sometimes rough outdoor environments. They therefore lacked adequate and seasonally appropriate footwear for walking to school and attending lessons. To remedy this, in January 2021, the SARIAS Foundation asked teachers at Mehmet Akif Ersoy Secondary School to determine the children’s requirements and was subsequently able to send 45 pairs of children’s shoes to the school. 15 girls and 30 boys between the ages of 10 and 14 each received a new, warm pair of shoes. Every size between a 34 (UK size 2) and a 41 (UK size 8) was provided and the children were very happy to exchange their old shoes for new ones.

The SARIAS Foundation wishes you a happy valentines!