Dear Teachers!
Welcome to San Diego Opera’s Operation: Opera 2008-2009 Student Night at the Opera!
Our motto at San Diego Opera is “We make music worth seeing”. This season is no exception. Some of the world’s greatest opera singers are performing with our company, and you will be the very first audience to experience the first act of each production. We are delighted to offer you and your students a taste of world-class opera at our main stage home, the Civic Theatre.
It is critical that you and your students spend some classroom time preparing for this experience. For many students in San Diego, this will be their first opportunity to attend a live performance. We all want them to know what to look and listen for when they attend the opera. You can prepare them by doing the following things.
1. Invite a San Diego Opera Docent to come to your classroom for a pre-show presentation. You may have already requested a visit when you signed up for your tickets; if not you can click here to fill out an application for DOCENT PRESENTATION or contact Angela Montague Kanish, Associate Director of Education, Operations to request a presentation. Her e-mail address is Angela.Kanish@sdopera.com. You can also reach her by phone (619) 232-7636.
2. Share the 4 Things you need to know before going to the Opera hand-out (it is the next page of this document) with your students.
3. Integrate the study guide materials. The following links will provide you with a synopsis of the story. It includes: a listening guide with examples of music, biographical information about the artists, sample lessons and a complete libretto of the opera.
This year we revised the guides to be paper-free and easier to navigate. To the right are links that provide useful information about Madama Butterfly. They include: a synopsis with music examples, artist biographies, samples of sets and costumes as well as related historical information. I would love to hear back from you about how you liked them.
We’ll see you at the opera!
Cynthia Stokes
Associate Director of School and Community Programs
San Diego Opera
Four things to know before attending Student Night at the Opera
- Opera is a story that is sung. As you watch and listen to the opera think about how the words and music mix together to develop character relationships, conflict, and an overall artistic effect. Opera composers use different singer voice types to create a dramatic or comedic effect. How do the singers’ voices impact the audience experiencing the opera?
- Opera singers sound very different from pop or rock and roll singers because they are not using microphones. Instead, they use their bodies as amplifiers. Opera singers have the rare gift of being able to make their voices soar over an orchestra and a chorus without any electronic support.
- Opera is often in another language. It was the most popular art form in Europe before movies, so operas were written in the language of the people who first attended them. Read the synopsis and listen to the musical excerpts before coming to the performance. The Civic theatre has supertitles above the stage for audience members to read along as the story is performed.
- The opera you are going to attend is a live performance. The singers are as aware of you as you are of them. Make sure that any distractions (electronics or food) are turned off and put away so you can give the performance your full attention. You are going to have an amazing time!