Classroom Successes!

Erin Moll, Opera For All Teaching Artist

We at Opera For All are so excited to have just wrapped up our fourth week with the students!

We are currently gearing up for a couple of very exciting events – our field trip to the History Museum as well as an in school performance of Carmen & the Bull presented by Chicago Opera Playhouse!  I am constantly amazed by our students – they have an incredible ability to retain and replicate melodies and rhythms after the first time hearing it.  We worked this past week on a very complicated rhythm for the Carmen & the Bull music and I was impressed by how quickly the students caught on and were able to sing this music!

As part of our work on Carmen & the Bull, the students have been listening to the music from Bizet’s opera Carmen.  Through listening activities, students were able to interpret and discuss mood of the music and to draw their reactions to how the music made them feel!

Our students are also learning confidence and teambuilding while performing!  We have been doing various acting exercises to get them on their feet and comfortable performing in front of their peers.

Every week I walk into the classroom, at least one student asks me if I’m going to sing for them!  They are so excited to hear opera and the sounds that can be made with the human voice!  

Classroom Successes!

Matt McNabb, Opera for All Teaching Artist

What a great opening to a new Opera For All year! In the first three weeks of class we have taken an evening field trip to see Mozart’s “Lucio Silla,” learned opera vocabulary, played acting and singing games, gotten up and performed scenes from the libretto of “Lucio Silla” and this week started singing music from “Carmen and the Bull!”

I think the greatest success so far is that we already have the students on their feet and performing for each other. We are already building an atmosphere of ensemble work that will directly relate to the creation of each class opera. The students are already finding the fun in performing, and each week they are requesting time to get up and act! One of the 5th graders at Healy, who didn’t want to make eye contact with us the first day, was one of the first to raise his hand to perform a scene from “Lucio Silla” during the second week of class. This student walked right up in front of the class and did a wonderful job! That is my favorite kind of success.