The premiere of an opera about the Bronte family as children - written by youngsters from four Bradford schools - has been staged in the church where their father was the vicar.

Curtain-up on the first performance of The Wind on the Moor took place yesterday afternoon with a cast of about 100 at Haworth Church.

The only disappointment for the production team, led by Bronte Parsonage Museum audience development manager Andrew McCarthy, was the non-appearance of children from Frizinghall primary school.

The 30 children - mostly from the chorus - were hit by the quarantine orders imposed by Bradford Council on schools hit by the winter vomiting bug. But the show went on, revised slightly and with some other children called in, said Mr McCarthy.

"It was a fabulous show and the children did wonderfully well," he said.

Following the evening performance for parents, the development and production of the show is to be turned into an exhibition using photographs and a CD recording. It is then to go on tour to the four schools which took part - Frizinghall primary, Lees primary at Haworth, Margaret McMillan primary in Bradford and Bingley's Myrtle Park primary.

Later the Yorkshire Museums, Libraries and Archive Council will use the project as a model of best practice for other schools.

It will feature at a conference at Cartwright Hall, Bradford in June.

"It is hoped that what we did will filter through to other organisations," Mr McCarthy said.

Among the audience was project director Virginia Rushton, of the London-based OperaHouse.

She said: "The children have done very well, some have become stars. Music provides a creative release and it has given them a great chance to express themselves in a way they would not normally have done."

The opera was written and composed by the children after being involved in a series workshops at Haworth over the last six months.