It says something about London’s artistic confidence that the first jazz opera about US baseball and its long years of racial segregation should have been conceived not in New York or Los Angeles but here in London.

Even more remarkably, its world premiere was carried off brilliantly last night with 120 Hackney schoolchildren shouldering the bulk of the load.

Julian Joseph’s tuneful score accurately evoked the Jazz Age of 1935-45, a time when swing was king, jazz ruled the airwaves and stars such as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Cab Calloway ran Negro League teams on the side.

Mike Phillips’s libretto was admirably direct, as in Bridgetower, his previous collaboration with Joseph, and his song-lyrics were admirably succint. “This game is hot/but it can be cruel,” sang Cleveland Watkiss, the only adult in the cast. “One day you’re a hero/ The next you’re a fool.”  A good line, that, for the likes of John Terry and Wayne Rooney, who were unmistakably playing shadowball the other night.

Hackney 12-year-olds rarely get a good press, either, so let it be recorded here that these all-singing, all-strutting, all-acting boys and girls were the stars of the show. Director Jonathan Moore might have worked wonders with them but it was their energy, infectious enthusiasm and surprising rhythmic power that brought these numbers to life.

If this multi-faceted production has a message, it was that youngsters given something exciting to do might discover enough talent and inspiration to face this tough world with a smile.

Tonight. Information: 020 7236 1919.