A TEENAGER has scooped a Herald Angel award for her review of a three hour long opera.
Rachel Cronin, a 17-year-old student from the Royal High School in Barnton, has won a Wee Cherub for being judged to be the best of the Young Critics at the Edinburgh Festival.
Ms Cronin won the prize for her four-star review of the opera La Cenerentola at the Edinburgh International Festival.
She is in her last year at school, studying English, French and History.
After that, she hopes to study journalism at Strathclyde University in Glasgow.
In her review, she said the opera was “a light-hearted take on Cinderella is a profound melee of ethereal singing, over-the-top acting, and hilariously questionable dancing.”
The Herald works with the EIF every year on its Young Critics scheme, with students from schools across the capital who see shows, and then se their reviews printed in the newspaper.
Receiving her award, Ms Cronin said: “It was my first opera, and it was a good one to start off with, as it wasn’t really heavy.
“At three hours, it was still pretty long.
“I sort of knew from the workshop we did before hand what to expect but it was funnier than I thought it was going to be - you’d think it would be humour that I didn’t find funny as a 17-year-old girl, but it was actually really good.”
Ms Cronin gave the opera four stars.
She said: “I dropped a star because of the length - although it was funny, and that helped you get through it, it could have been shortened a bit for my taste.”
Ms Cronin now aims to be a journalist.
She said: “I love writing, and having something to say, and being able to say it, is important to me.
“I always said I wanted to be an author, but recently I have got more into journalistic writing: there’s a book by Sue Lloyd-Roberts called The War on Women. She gave her subjects a voice and exposed injustice, and that really inspired me, it was a turning point.”
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