PR
Turning Rotherham’s first opera into a national story
As part of Rotherham’s year as the world’s first Children’s Capital of Culture, Rotherham Council wanted to create something genuinely ambitious: an opera written with, performed by and inspired by the borough’s children and young people, in collaboration with Royal Ballet & Opera (RBO).
Tales Untapped would become Rotherham’s first-ever opera – bringing together more than 1,000 school children alongside professional musicians and creatives.
Our challenge was to make sure this wasn’t simply seen as another cultural event. We needed to find the story that would make journalists sit up and take notice, build anticipation over several months, and ultimately turn a local cultural first into a story that could travel far beyond Rotherham.
The hook was hiding in plain sight: Rotherham had never had an opera before. But the bigger story was about who was creating it – this wasn’t an opera being brought to Rotherham for an audience – it was being created with local children and young people, giving hundreds of them the chance to take centre stage in a professional production.
We built the campaign around the idea of Rotherham making history – while keeping the children at the heart of every story. That gave us multiple PR hooks to work with: the announcement of the opera, the scale of the production, the children’s involvement, rehearsals, the first performance and the eventual launch.
PR and media relations
Find the first
We started by selling in the story of Rotherham’s first-ever opera, securing early coverage in the Yorkshire Post and Sheffield Star and interviews on That’s TV and BBC Radio Sheffield.
Make the children the story
As the production came together, the campaign became increasingly focused on the young people involved. More than 1,000 school children were brought together for the production, creating a huge human-interest story alongside the cultural one. We identified the children, teachers, creatives and organisers who could bring the story to life and developed opportunities for broadcast interviews, features and photography. The result was a campaign that wasn’t just about Children’s Capital of Culture – it demonstrated exactly what the programme was trying to achieve.
Create pictures journalists couldn’t resist
Opera can be difficult to make visually exciting from a distance. Children rehearsing for their first opera is not. We worked with the team to identify strong filming and photography opportunities, including a rehearsal at Swinton school that became the basis for BBC Look North coverage. By giving broadcasters access to the children actually creating the opera, we gave them a story with energy, emotion and plenty of pictures.
Build momentum
We didn’t treat the premiere as the only moment that mattered. The PR campaign ran from the initial announcement in April through the performances in November and into December, giving us multiple opportunities to refresh the story. That sustained approach kept the story moving and gave us multiple bites of the media cherry.
The campaign generated 28 pieces of media coverage, spanning local, regional and national media. Highlights included:
• ITV News national coverage
• BBC online coverage
• BBC Look North Breakfast, Lunchtime and Evening News
• ITV Calendar
• Classic FM
• BBC Radio Sheffield
• BBC Radio York
• BBC Radio Leeds
• Yorkshire Post
• Sheffield Star
• Doncaster Free Press
• Rotherham Advertiser
• Rotherham Life
The story secured multiple broadcast interviews, features and live appearances, taking Rotherham’s first opera from a local cultural project to a national news story.