Utah Opera presents TWELFTH annual Children’s Opera Showcase
SALT
LAKE CITY — Utah Opera will give local elementary school students a
chance to take the spotlight to perform original operas in a
professional theatre. The twelfth annual Children’s Opera Showcase will
take place Thursday, March 21 at 6:30 PM in the Jeanné Wagner Theatre
located in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center (138 West 300 South).
Participating
classes will present an original opera created, produced and performed
by students and their teachers with the assistance of a local composer
provided by Utah Opera. Teachers attended a summer training program with
Utah Opera to help guide them in the development of these year-long
class projects. Now, the children will become the stars of the show,
singing their own operas with their own sets and costumes.
The
evening of March 21 will include three pint-sized operas: first, Mary
Williams’ kindergarten class from St. Vincent School will perform their
opera titled “Rose’s Garden.” Local composer and school music specialist
Scott Larrabee helped the children create their own melodies for this
opera. Their story is about a Rose who decides to put down roots and
weathers through winter certain that her garden will eventually grow.
The
Showcase’s second opera, which will begin at approximately 7:15 PM,
comes from the second grade classes of Murray School District’s Parkside
Elementary School, under the direction of teacher Janet Anderson, with
mentor composer help from Marc Madsen and Amber Masterson. Their opera,
titled “The Lesson: Bullies to Friends,” was created by the students to
address the challenge of bullies at school. With the use of a little
magic from pixie friends, bullies learn a lesson about how it feels to
be picked on.
The
final opera of the evening, beginning at approximately 8:10 PM, will
star Kathy Travers’ third grade class from Salt Lake City School
District’s Wasatch Elementary School, with musical help from composer
David Naylor. The students who worked on this opera explored the idea of
the rainbow throughout their curriculum: studies in poetry, dance,
drama and science were involved in creating this opera. Their dance
specialist, Jean Gardner, explained:
The
finale dance was created by the dancers based on their study of colors.
Each dancer chose a colored paint chip and then individually generated a
web of words relating that color to the senses – how the color looks,
sounds, smells, feels and tastes. Next, they explored possible movement
and energy qualities of their color, and then collaborated with other
students with the same color to write a color poem which they developed
into a color dance. The finale dance begins with the idea of light
passing through a prism—separating the light into the color spectrum.
The “Rainbow Children” dance around and through the prism, then each
color group dances its color poem, and they end the dance in a
celebration rainbow.
In
addition to these three operas featured in the official evening
Showcase, Utah Opera is also taking the opportunity at Rose Wagner to
allow the third grade classes at Salt Lake City School District’s
Bonneville Elementary to perform their “Gardens of the Mind Opera
Extravaganza.” Teacher Cindy Norton organized the projects with her team
of 3rd grade teachers, and composer Masa Fukuda assisted.
Their performance begins at 4:30 PM. The public is also invited to
attend this event.
Utah
Opera’s summer teacher training and the Children’s Opera Showcase have
received financial assistance from the Art Works for Kids Foundation,
the McCarthey Family Foundation, the Salt Lake City Arts Council and the
member of the Salt Lake City Council.
Admission
to this event is free, but seating is limited. The Rose Wagner
Performing Arts Center is located at 138 West 300 South in Salt Lake
City.
No comments:
Post a Comment