As the audience piled into the St. Vincent dePaul Center (SVDPC) theater space, the young performers seemed excited, nervous and anxious to begin. As a teacher, there is nothing more exciting and nerve-wracking than seeing the culmination of so many months of work. It is amazing to see the students’ growth in confidence, creativity and performance ability over the year. For me, the most exciting thing was noticing how the performers reacted to the audience adulation. They were singing with more energy and dancing their little hearts out for their peers and parents. You could see genuine joy on their faces, knowing that they were entertaining and even inspiring the younger kids!
During the “Gangnam Style” dance the younger grades in the front rows were doing the hand actions along with the performers. The young audience members were mesmerized by the operatic alien song, and amused by Mr. Cool zapping all the aliens cool. The fashion girls sounded particularly lovely in the climactic song “We are the fashion girls, and we’re here to accessorize you”! Overall, everyone did a fantastic job pulling the show together. Transitions were smooth, voices were clear and strong, and lines were delivered with confidence and character. I couldn’t be more proud of the group, and I’m sure we have some budding opera performers and opera goers in our midst. I believe we also reached the parents of the Opera For All students as well. So many parents came up to me and gushed about how amazing this experience was for their children and how much they enjoyed it and wanted to see more. Nothing honors a teacher more than a student who feels a sense of accomplishment due to the growth they’ve experienced over the months of work. It wasn’t always easy. One of the older boys in the class started out as unsure, standoffish and even a little “too cool for super school”. By the second half, he was the leader of the group, knew all his lines, and all the dance moves. After the performance he came up to me and asked to take a picture with me. This warmed my heart and reminded me why we are doing all of this. His mother was glowing with pride, and both have been instilled with a love of music and opera from now on.
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