Rumpelstiltskin

A classroom guide for teachers

The San Diego Opera Ensemble

San Diego Opera Ensemble embarks on its 21st year of touring around San Diego County and Mexico. The six Ensemble artists, accompanied by their Music Director, perform for every kind of audience, from children in kindergarten to college students and senior citizens. Approximately three-fourths of the performance schedule is performed in schools.

San Diego Opera brings the Ensemble to the attention of groups for which the arts are not always easily accessible, such as members of community centers in underprivileged areas of San Diego County. This exciting group of artists bring live performances to more than 30,000 thrilled students and adults each season.

Auditions are held in San Diego every spring. These artists come to San Diego Opera with significant professional credits, such as the Tanglewood and Aspen Festivals, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera and Long Beach Opera, among many other companies. Many artists who participate in the Ensemble perform roles in San Diego Opera’s International Season. Some go on to contracts with other major companies such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

The 2008-2009 Ensemble’s touring repertoire includes:

Rumpelstiltskin

Rumpelstiltskin is based on the well-known fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. A poor Miller tells a fateful lie to the king: his daughter can spin straw into gold! When Nell discovers what her father has done, she turns to the bad-tempered magical creature Rumpelstiltskin to do her spinning for her. But in doing so he exacts a terrible demand: her first-born child. He offers her one means of escape….discover his true identity and he will relent. This opera was created especially for the students of San Diego County by our own Director of Education and the Stage Director of the ensemble.

Così fan tutte

The School for Sweethearts

Don Alfonso devises an experiment to see if two sets of lovers will stay faithful to one another even if the boys pretend to leave and return in disguise. He bets the two young men, Ferrando and Guglielmo that their true loves will forget about them as soon as the ladies, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, meet the handsome ‘strangers’. Toss in a crafty servant, Despina, and watch this brilliant comedy unfold with many unexpected results.

Opera Unplugged

Opera Unplugged is an assembly program designed especially for middle and high school audiences. Our Ensemble singers will thrill listeners with displays of vocal talent as they sing arias and ensembles from the great repertoire of operatic masterpieces. Excerpts from such operas as Carmen, Rigoletto, The Daughter of the Regiment, The Magic Flute and Faust will bring students closer to the excitement and brilliance of the dramatic art of opera and introduce them to common operatic terminology.

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