Chicago Opera Theater - Education: Opera for All

2010-2011 OPERA for ALL:
Teaching to the Test, or Creative Initiative?

I’ll never forget the unexpected response we received last year after inviting Opera for All students to participate in a creative project intended to enhance their understanding of an opera plot.

We instructed students to make a collage of a scene from the opera, and showed them an example. We presented them with the materials creative dreams are made of: colorful construction paper, glitter, sticky “jewels”, patterned backgrounds, 64 Crayolas, magazines to cut . . .items my inner child found tantalizing, but which these kids found perplexing. “What do we do?” they said, confusion and very real anxiety evident in their faces and voices. “Is this right?” they asked, holding up forlorn, virtually naked pieces of paper or results that were exact copies of the example we provided.

The kids didn’t know how, were afraid to, create.

As many of us know, “teaching to the test” is now the MO of our school system. It’s a well-intentioned mindset, unavoidable in schools that are designated as failing. Of course, some standards are necessary so that teachers and students can assess their progress towards basic learning benchmarks, and tests are a traditional way of measuring mastery.

At the same time, arts curriculums, the impact of which is less easily quantified, are increasingly cut, viewed as fluff compared to reading, writing, and arithmetic, especially since many students are reaching high school age without competencies in those vital skills.

Nonetheless, that anxious, tragic response, coming from 5th and 6th graders, their need to be told exactly what to do, and, especially, their initially negative emotional reaction to what should have been a joyous activity, all led me to question their ultimate ability, basic skills notwithstanding, to participate as adults in an economy that has moved away from manufacturing and towards innovation.

Now more than ever, our kids need experience in creative, imaginative brain-work. How many job ads read: Wanted: someone who thinks inside the box? Wanted: workers who require constant and comprehensive direction?

This year, we asked Opera for All students to increase their involvement in the creative process. In cooperation with CAPE guest artists Adam Busch, Sonja Henderson, and the late great Mary Scruggs of Second City , we guided them through lyric writing, composing, staging/choreography, and props construction. We learned to ask kids at every step of the way; What do you think?

And at first, they didn’t have answers. How do I play with words in a way that leads to rhymed couplets? Why should one pitch be preferable to any other pitch in this line of a song? What gesture represents excitement? What is brainstorming?

The students eventually realized that there were no right answers; only exciting possibilities. They learned how to ask, not: “Is this right?”, but rather: “What if. . .?”

And then we could hardly keep up with the flow of enthusiastic creation.

Although it would often have been easier, and faster, to just tell the kids exactly what to do, allowing them to create the opera themselves has resulted in enthusiastic participation, a faster learning curve, and artistic authenticity and integrity in the resulting opera, "School Rules".

If creative initiative, our essential intellectual vitality, is repeatedly stifled (as I fear it may be by elimination of arts curriculum and “teaching to the test”), learning can be reduced to rote memorization and mandated drudgery, rather than independent discovery. Children may not learn how to learn, given that so much of learning comes either from asking: How? Why? What if?, from experimenting, or from the desire to have the ability to find one’s own answers through reading, writing, and arithmetic. Or physics, or philosophy, or history. . .

At this point in the school year, we have in the past sometimes had issues with memorization, failure to commit to the process, and an overall lack of enthusiasm perhaps not unlike that which leads students to fail in their regular academic courses. This year, we are experiencing the opposite.

“What if I do a slide to center on this line of the song?” we are asked. “How about I dress in disco clothes for this song?” a child suggests. “Can we all fall down when we are talking about tripping on our baggy pants?” the boys demand. “Can I make a poster with my sketches for the opera?” “Why don’t we add some music here?” “Can I do a solo?”

Telling, in a different way: “When is the opera, I want my grandma/dad/mom/aunt to come?”

We’re done, we have to tell them. Our opera has a due date determined by the performance and there comes a time when we have to “finish” our work of art. But we don’t have to be done creating and learning. In fact, it seems to me that once people of any age experience the sense of limitless possibility that comes from creativity, they return to it again and again; both through artistic activity and through applying that open-ended, exploration-oriented mentality to new learning frontiers in every discipline.

School, when it fosters independent initiative, creative thinking, and a love of discovery, can indeed, as our opera title suggests, “Rule”.

Lisa Golda
COT Teaching Artist

Chicago Opera Theater honored COT for Teens on Sunday, March 6th at their annual Gala at Carnivale. Over the last decade, Chicago Opera Theater has worked with hundreds of teenagers to provide an artistic outlet. The program originated through individual partnerships with two high schools, Curie on the south side and Schurz on the northwest side. Students from these two schools were integral to the creation and performance of COT’s annual Education and Outreach productions, notably Benjamin Britten’s Noah’s Flood in 2001. The program codified six years ago when COT entered into a partnership with the City of Chicago’s After School Matters initiative, now drawing in students from CPS high schools all over the city. Each year, students from diverse backgrounds and neighborhoods come together to study and create opera. For some, this marks the first experience with singing and opera as they attend schools with no music or art offerings. And for others, it is an extension on a young interest in singing. Regardless of background and experience, all of these students come to us with eagerness to explore a new art form and spread their wings. For three hours a day, three days a week, the COT for Teens students immerse themselves in what we love: opera. The program culminates in the spring with their own production. This year COT For Teens will present a condensed version of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, an excerpt from which you will hear shortly. This program instills artistry and appreciation in not only tomorrow’s opera-goers, but tomorrow’s opera stars, as well. 10 of the 30 COT for Teens students were featured at the Gala under the direction of Christopher Richard and Marta Johnson.

The transition that each student goes through from the beginning of the program- where some are completely unfamiliar with opera and singing- to performing in a production that would make even the toughest critic get on their feet, is astounding. And interpersonally, the students grow, too. Our students gain confidence in themselves and take great pride in being part of such a special team. The typical after school ritual of TV is replaced with this incredible creative outlet that is inspirational.

Every year a handful of our students decide to pursue careers in music. Our alumni have gone on to schools such as the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, DePaul University and even Eastman School of Music in New York. And regardless if they pursue music as a career, each of these amazing students come out of our program with greater self-respect and confidence--qualities that will serve them for the rest of their lives.

One of the high school performers texted this message that night to director, Chris Richard. "Thank you so much for tonight!!!! It was truly an inspiration and a reminder as to shy I want to be a musician! This is a night I will never forget and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity! Tonight truly was the greatest experience I've ever had!

ADVICE TO ARTISTS AND "SCHOOL RULES"

Artists often hear the refrain: write/paint/act what you know. The theory behind the admonition is that it takes a gifted performer or other artist to interpret and translate a life experience that they themselves have never had.
This year, Opera for All students are proving this sage artistic advice to be correct with their incredible investment in this year's process and the authenticity of the piece they have created. Our students have written the words and music for their own opera, "School Rules", as well as created large props for the production. In the past, we've taught them excerpts from classic operas and classical songs which were set in a script that retold an operatic libretto at a kid level. They enjoyed this, but we spent a lot of time making connections for them between historic material and its context in the opera we were studying, and how this might be relevant to them, today. This was sometimes difficult for our younger students. Our new approach has made so much difference in the way the students approach the project! Their enthusiasm and excitement is positively amazing.
To begin, the late great Mary Scruggs of Second City worked with our students and teaching artists to create lyrics to songs based on our central themes: legacy, culture, and heritage. One of COT's mainstage operas this season, Machover's Death and the Powers, addresses these concepts by telling the story of a man who immortalizes himself after death by placing his consciousness in a machine.
Our students made these heady themes their own by translating them (with help of inquiry questions) into situations and lyrics they could understand: treasures and heirlooms brought from home; foods and clothing, which can be a part of cultural heritage; and things that happen in school, such as lending advice to younger classmates, disobeying the rules, and other interactions that can contribute to the legacy one leaves behind. The theme of legacy has been especially poignant given that Mary passed away suddenly. The children seem to understand that her legacy to them is, in part, the lyrics they wrote with her.
These charming songs, which include an ode to pizza, a chocolate milk group number, and groovy tune about trendy clothes, were then set to music by the kids with the help of talented teaching artist and composer Adam Busch. Next, they created props; in this case, giant costumes of food and family treasures designed by visiting artist Sonja Henderson. Their excitement as they made connections between the props and their song lyrics was wonderful! Building their opera from the ground up has made them incredibly invested in the project.
We're almost done teaching all the students the songs from other schools; each class has contributed about two songs to the project, which means that they then have to learn six more that students at other schools wrote (four schools are participating in writing the opera). Their curiosity about the other students' work is evidenced by their focus when we are teaching them the songs; they really appreciate that the music and words they are learning are a "work of art" because they have put in that work themselves. They respect the process accordingly.
As we've taught the rest of the songs, we've let the students know the context for their work in the opera libretto, which was conceptualized by teaching artists Kim Chin, Linden Christ, and Lisa Golda, with input from our intern Anna Solomon. Based on this discussion, Lisa wrote a few short dialogue scenes to tie all the students' songs together into a "day in the life" of a student following a TA brainstorming session, using ideas from cut songs when possible. Now we will complete the process by staging and directing the opera with our young performers, who can hardly contain their excitement about this final step. The kids will also learn two dances.
The kids are overcoming natural shyness and clamoring to audition for solos. They are suggesting staging ideas to us. They are creating artwork to be used as a t-shirt design for the show. The more we allow them to direct the process, the more initiative they seem to take. Their whole-hearted participation, demonstrated with classroom focus, laughter, joyful singing, questions about teaching artists who are not present that day, and devotion to the tasks we are presenting them with, is a joy. They are writing/acting/singing/drawing/dancing what they know, and in the process, learning that opera can be a relevant and accessible art form, which is one of our curriculum goals. I can't wait for the day that "School Rules" opens!
by COT Teaching Artist Lisa Golda

Adam Busch, Composer in Residence

What a FUN-tastic time we had at Calmeca, Clinton and Hampton schools!! We laughed...a TON, and learned even more!!! Using our 'music meter' ( an octave scale)--the kids were able to select notes, 1 through 8, to create AMAZING melodies. Their thought process was very clear. They identified the story each lyric was telling, then matched the rise and fall of the notes with the emotions and key words of the lyric--even making edits for meter where neccessary. Unbelievably, through all of our laughing--we complete the songs and all are strikingly unique. In just 3 short sessions of 45 minutes the students created a total of seven songs. From the funky "Clothes were Groovy" disco, to the demanding "Chocolate Milk song", to the cravings of "I Can't Wait for Dessert", and the joys of "Pizza Day".
What a great program! It will be exciting now for these kids to learn and share their songs AND perform them in May!!
Cheers to all the participants!!!!

Download Pics through Jan. 4th 2011 535

Violinist and Chicago Opera Theater's Education Intern, Julie Davis substituted for Iris Wei and reported the following:

Last Thursday, December 2nd, was my third visit with the violin group class at Reilly, but the first time as the only teacher present in the room. I was excited to see how the students' had matured and what new skills they learned.

Seeing that they had just began to learn music notation, I put 8 measures of music on the board, using letter names instead of a full staff. The song went something like this: A A | A A | D D | D D | A A | A A | D D | D D | . As they also wrote this in their own notebooks, I explained the concepts of measure, bar lines, and 'the beat.' Then we sang this song several times, first all together, than the girls sang A and boys D, etc. We then assigned dance motions to each letter, as A was hands in the air and D was touching the floor. I like this exercise because young students can really feel the beat and hear the difference between high and low. Then we discussed how we could play this piece on the violin, as the violin has both A and D strings.

Then, I introduced a small composition exercise. I erased all the notes and left the bar lines. Reviewing the strings of the violin, I asked students to raise their hands and give suggest notes (E, A, D, G) to fill the 8 measure song. Then we sang the song (although our pitches were not accurate) with specific body motions for each letter. I introduced the concept of composition, and told them that they had all been composers that day. This new vocab word was recorded in their journals.

After this exercise, we unpacked the violins, and reviewed correct playing position. Next we played the song Ants, a simple song of just open strings. I asked students to write in their notebooks how this song would be written using bar lines and letter names. We then drew this together on the board and played it once more. To conclude the lesson, I rewrote the first song we worked/sang and we practiced playing this with our violins. Some students really got the concept of pizzing different strings for different notes, but I think others had a hard time physically understanding how plucking the strings to the left are lower in pitch.

My biggest surprise upon returning the the classes was the difference between the first group (3rd graders) and the second (I believe 4th grade?). The first group was really into the singing/dancing activity. They were laughing and suggesting goofy dance moves. The second class however was more reluctant to try the activity. They were also more inclined to goof off. I made a rule that if someone's back turned away from me, they lost their violins and had to sit quietly. I was very firm, calling individuals out and asking them why they would misbehave the one day a week they had to learn violin. I think because this class was after school, and they had they day off the next day, that they were naturally a little more rowdy.

Also, I realized how hard and time consuming it is to tune all those violins! If I sub again, I think I'd try to tune the violins before the class begins to save time.

I had a lot of fun at Reilly because the kids are naturally eager to learn and excited to play!

PRACTICE WHAT YOU TEACH: TEACHING ARTISTS PERFORM with OPERA FOR ALL STUDENTS

COT recently sponsored a series of in-school performances by Chicago Opera Play House of a children's opera, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. COT Education Manager Linden Christ, who runs Chicago Opera Play House, was Goldilocks, and I, Lisa Golda was Mama Bear. Baby Bear was played by Matthew Newlin, COT’s Young Artist Singer, Papa Bear by Justin Adair, and COT’s education pianist, Marta Johnson accompanied. Composed by Jonthan Stinson, the opera addresses themes of homelessness, family intimacy and love, trespassing, and forgiveness through this familiar fairy tale. The music itself is sophisticated yet engaging and accessible; a treat for singers and audiences alike!
We presented the opera at schools where we teach: Reilly, Clinton, Calmeca, and Hampton. Students (4th-5th graders) at all four schools had been taught the finale chorus and sang with us at the close of the show. Other students from the schools were present just to enjoy the opera.
The children were SO excited to see the performance and to participate with their grown-up counterparts! We heard a lot of positive feedback the next day during regular classes. At one school, Reilly, the entire audience (about five hundred children) got involved to tell us that Goldilocks was NOT on the stage in the bed where the Bears were searching for her, but in the auditorium! They all pointed and yelled "She's gone, she's gone! She's over here!" They were quite involved in the story. It was one of the most rewarding and delightful performing experiences I have ever had. And I would venture to say that the children present will remember that magical, musical day for a long time to come.
I think that it is vital for our students to enjoy exposure to art of all kinds. But it is especially important for them to see an opera, given our program; and to see one early in the year, so that they have a concrete idea of what they are working towards. Our students have spent this semester writing their own lyrics for songs with Mary Scruggs of Second City. Next semester, music and staging will be added and the children will present their very own opera! But last year we heard from some of our partner CPS teachers that many children had never even been in a choir concert, much less a staged performance, and that the end-of-the-year rehearsal process took them by surprise.
This year, our students were able to actively experience the art form that they themselves will be presenting in the spring; both as audience members and as performers themselves. The Goldilocks and the Three Bears performances were scheduled in the same week as the students' "Winter Preview", a semi-staged performance of their written lyrics.
They now have had a taste of excitement, stage fright, rehearsal, and of the finished product they will eventually present. The students will better understand the lessons of teamwork, delayed gratification, and daily practice that are a practical component of the artistic process. They also, I think, have even more respect for us as their artist-teachers. We can actually practice what we teach!
I think that these in-school performances will make such a big difference in the kids' experiences and ability to meaningfully participate in OFA, both in terms of their understanding of what they are working towards, and in their rapport with and respect for us, their Teaching Artists. Mama Bear has already made an in-class appearance (out of costume) to ask for quiet with a gentle "Rahhhhhhhhhrrrrrr!"

Lisa Golda, Chicago Opera Theater Teaching Artist

Kim Chin, Chicago Opera Theater Teaching Artist at Hampton Elementary and Calmeca Academy

I decided to do a lesson using a musical improve technique. I used only the solfege syllables Do, Mi, Sol, and Do using numbers 1,3,5,1*. I also used long and short notes indicated by a line or a dot. I had a mini lesson on declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences. Some of the classes already new what these sentences were but some 4th and 5th graders didn't. They did great job of coming up with examples of each. After we came up with these sentences, we assigned each syllable of the sentence with numbers 1,3,5,1* and labeled the syllables with long and short notes depending on their stress and importance.
We played the melody on the piano and had them sing and edit their classroom creation. This class was a follow-up session from learning about recitative in an Opera; a musical conversation. Their homework was to write a conversation and label each syllable with numbers and label long and short notes.
This lesson was very successful! The students did really great, understood each step, and had a blast "writing" their own melody. It was also really fun seeing them act out the sentences and act it out with the melody. There were quite a few that used their whole bodies and facial expressions while acting. Most thought it was funny at
first but still enjoyed the challenge. They also came up with great sentences that related to the Opera we are doing. Since this lesson was so successful, I can't wait to add the rest of the numbers 2,4,6,7 (re, fa, la, ti). I believe that every child has natural creative and
musical talent and this lesson really broadcasts this talent.

Here are some awesome pictures from the Clinton Performance of "Giasone: Jason and the Golden Fleece"

Check this Link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobowie/sets/72157623393234797/

Jason and the Argonauts! Heroic Theatrics at Clinton Elementary
by COT Teaching Artist Lisa Golda

Last week, my teaching partner Danielle and I taught two stage-intensive sessions at our school, Clinton Elementary, to make sure the students would be ready for their upcoming dress rehearsals of this year’s student opera, “Jason and the Argonauts/Il Giasone”. Scheduling snafus, a complex multitude of costumes and props, and some good-old-fashioned stage fright in some of our star performers had us (and them) feeling a bit frazzled as we approached the culmination of our year-long residency at the school.



We shouldn’t have worried. How wonderful it was to see the kids step up to the plate and take charge of their artistry, and sometimes, each other, during these last rehearsals!



Our younger Clinton class is typically enthusiastic but chatty, which can make focused work a challenge. They acted like professionals in so many ways during this past week’s sessions; so much so that I know that their upcoming performance will be a huge success.



A clamor of children begging for their own sword or shield overwhelmed me early in the rehearsal as I handed warrior gear out to the "Argonauts". Students were thrilled by the props—golden shields, swords, lightning bolts, a ship, sticks of “fire,” fantastic wigs, and a “fire-breathing bull”, many of which they were seeing for the first time. Nagged later for a sword by what seemed like the thousandth Argonaut---whom I had caught air-dueling with our hero Jason---I made a somewhat exasperated announcement that props would be assigned as needed and that play fighting was forbidden.



Imagine my chagrin when "Jason" and "Poseidon" commenced their duel, which I had staged earlier in the week—Poseidon doing his weaponless best. “My bad,” I told the kids, who remembered more than I did. Poseidon got his much-deserved prop, as well as my heartfelt apology!



Several scenes involve imaginary water, which the children create by waving lengths of blue fabric. (“Waving” is actually too gentle a word for the rambunctious rippling and accompanying critiques of waving style meted out by the kids to each other. But water makes noise, right?) At one point, I was concerned that the actors playing our bull might, as they entered in their fantastic costume (thanks, CAPE artist Sonja Henderson and McKinley students!), slip on this “water” while it was on the floor waiting for the next splashy scene. Before I had even finished explaining why, the tide went out in the blink of an eye, the wavers whisking their “water” neatly out of the way. I was so proud of them.



But one of our Jasons, a fifth grader, stole the show when he sweetly took the initiative by holding the microphone out to a shy scene partner playing Chiron the centaur. Talk about team-building! (Illinois Learning Standard #21).



Our older cast is a small but committed bunch of drama gods and goddesses. "Jason", "Mars", "Hypsipyle", "Venus", "Medea", and "Mercury" played their own plus others’ parts at their leads’ rehearsal, threw themselves into their minuet/hip hop dance, and sang their songs with gusto. Bursting with pride, they waved a Clinton teacher into the room to watch their dance routine. They also made helpful observations about the younger cast’s rehearsal, observing it attentively and supportively. Their focus and excitement about the process made it possible for us to run their staging several times.



“It’s fun,” one of them, said, smiling, as rehearsal came to a close. Another young woman thanked me for coming to teach them. “I didn’t get to have opera (class) last year,” she said. "I really like it." “It” being singing, dancing, acting, costumes, struggle, challenge, and all the onstage magic that comes together at the last minute to create the unique team art-making experience that is an opera.



As do I. Boy, but do I really like it.

Matt Newlin, Teaching Artist at Reilly Elementary School
CAPE Collaboration In Videography!

I am so excited about Reilly Elementary's contribution to the show! Before the classes with CAPE artist Andrea Slavik, I was not quite sure what to expect. All I knew was that we were in charge of some video components that were to act like a back-drop for our scenery. Andrea made me realize, though, that it is so much more than that.

Linden and I asked our students at Reilly to think about what kinds of monsters from the original myth they wanted to have in their performance, and they had tons of ideas. From the harpies to the sirens, the crashing rocks to the giant whirlpool, the fire-breathing bulls to the fighting skeletons -- Nothing was left out! When Andrea came to class the first time, their assignment was to draw these monsters in a specific way, one in which she could manipulate and animate them for the video projection. Our results were amazing, as the pictures show. Also, we wanted the students to draw us their representations of love to compliment the scene when Jason is choosing between Medea and Hypsiple. Andrea took these drawings home with her and quickly got to work.

What she came back with surprised us all -- She had put together a small video clip in which the students saw their creations come to life! She had the students guess how many individual pictures she had to take to make the 13 second clip, and only a few students were even close. It was very enlightening and educational for the 4th and 5th grade class about how much work and time actually goes into making a cartoon. The rest of the class period was spent showing the students first-hand the animation process, and I believe they really enjoyed it. I know that the end result at the performance is going to WOW everyone, especially the students and their families. It's going to be so wonderful watching them see their creations "alive" on stage with them.