“As extra-curricular activities go, this is the bee’s knees and spider’s ankles.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Look, you’re busy. I’m busy. It’s halfway through EdFringe which was exhausting enough in our 20s before kids. So let’s just say what needs saying and try to get Tabbitha and Ossian through their next 8 shows without any more tears – clears throats, goes for fortissimo – ‘Madame Chandelier’s Opera Party for Kids’ is the one show you cannot, must not miss.

It is art. It is artistry. It is informative. It is bucketloads of fun. Where else are you going to watch a classically trained opera singer gag on one of the Harribos she’s given to the kids in the front row to throw into her mouth when she hits the high notes?

As Madam Chandelier, Canadian-British opera singer and comedian Delea Shand is the best discovery at the Fringe us parents and carers can make. It’s opera, so it’s classy. It’s opera done well, so it’s really good. It’s opera done clever, which makes it comprehensible. It’s opera done knowledgeably, which makes for a lot of in-jokes buffs can smugly chuckle at. As extra-curricular activities go, this is the bee’s knees and spider’s ankles.

Daughter 1.0 (8 years) wrote this in her notebook, the one with Elsa dressed as la fille du régiment on the cover: “I went to madam chandelier’s opera party for kids! When I walked in there was a big suitcase on a stool and a lady standing next to it. Madame chandelier talked about lots of opera singers and we Played a few games. I also liked when she was a mermaid and we had a pool party with fish and bubbles and pretend warter! She played the accordion. I realy liked the bit when we had to throw gummy bears at her (only on the high notes). and she got to be all of the charecters! I liked when we had a party at the end. I really enjoyed it”

There’s no filter on children. It’s what makes them unlike grown-ups. Grown-ups know how to pretend to like things. Grown-ups don’t tell you they’re bored or fidget when stillness is what’s needed. Grown-ups compromise themselves to conform with expectations. It’s what makes children impossible and impossibly fun to be around. So when you are in a room with dozens of happy, laughing children who are enjoying themselves too much to notice they are also learning, you know you’re on to a great and wonderful thing.

Come for the opera because opera is high art which good for you. Stay for a biggest, bestest, sometimes bizzarest show that reminds us why we have kids and will travel many miles to see great performers hitting all the high notes. Get your opera capes on and go see this!