An overview of the MUSIC! WORDS! OPERA! materials
OPERA America has designed materials to demonstrate that the processes involved in creating and producing a work of art strengthen the fundamental components of learning.
Each level includes a teaching notebook of four units. Three units introduce an operatic masterpiece (
Listen and Discover) and one guides the creation of an original opera that is composed, produced and performed by students (
Create and Produce). Each unit includes lesson plans that conform to most state assessment standards, while also providing ample flexibility for individual teachers. Materials encourage a team-teaching approach suitable for teachers of music, drama, literature, foreign languages, studio art, art history, dance, history, mathematics, economics, science, psychology, sociology and business. However, these materials can be just as effective when used independently by specialists in music, drama or literature.
Levels I and II — Grades K-6
These levels provide teachers with materials that focus on the art and craft of story telling. In lessons that proceed logically and sequentially, students acquire a basic understanding of character, setting and plot. As language skills developed, students come to understand opera as a uniquely powerful form of story telling that they can both comprehend and enjoy. Teachers who are not musicians may partner with artist mentors from the local opera community, other local musicians and artists and/or university faculties.
Level III — Grades 7-12
Level III strategies involve older students in building skills intrinsic to a collaborative operatic work. Students learn to work in teams to accomplish mutual goals. As inventors and performers, they will step beyond their personal comfort zones and learn how to lead and follow, delegate, synthesize, analyze and acknowledge the creative energies and skills of others. Purposeful research that hones skills will enable level III students to confront and overcome obstacles, solve artistic and logistical problems, and learn to understand the world from multiple perspectives. Students will become aware of the space between the text and the self, and they will learn to negotiate this distance as executives, directors, performers and consumers of art and ideas.
For more detailed information about the materials, visit our
publications page.