Teaching opera to young students truly integrates arts into academics. Listening to and being a part of an opera is an excellent way to teach and reinforce language. An opera is literature that comes alive! Children learn best when they engage the senses and the whole body. Being able to sing, dance and listen to music engages the brain for better learning. Letting them move, feel different rhythms, dress up and be creative is just as important in their learning process as math and reading.
Charis Duke, our opera teacher is the composer and director for our upcoming opera “The 12 Princesses”. This story is about the King and Queen of a distant land that had to call all the princes from far and wide to solve their biggest problem, what is happening to their daughter’s shoes? There are 12 lovely princesses, and each morning when they awake their shoes are full of holes. Prince after prince arrives, yet they all fall asleep and cannot solve the mystery. One day a soldier returning from a war meets an old woman. After he shares his lunch with her, she gives him good advice about how to solve the mystery of the princesses’ shoes. The soldier soon solves the mystery and is bestowed with many gifts from a grateful King and Queen.
Every student is a part of the opera! We have singing and dancing, solos and group numbers. The students are helping paint the backdrops and are even learning about press releases and the power of publicity!