Education, Audiences & Community Services
Music! Words! Opera!

What is it?
Music! Words! Opera! (M!W!O!) is a three-level textbook series designed for children in grades K-12. It was written by a team of authors, including classroom and music teachers, curriculum specialists, composers and opera professionals. Through the study of opera and music-theater masterpieces, this multi-disciplinary curriculum presents the conventions of opera and allows students to compose and perform original music-theater works.

What is in the textbooks?
M!W!O! offers two approaches to learning — Listen and Discover and Create and Produce. Listen and Discover introduces students to the operatic art form and explores how and why specific operas were written. With Create and Produce, students produce their own original opera. Levels I and II each include "What to Listen For" CDs with music excerpts that accompany the lesson plans, a Teacher’s Manual and Student Studybooks. Level III includes a Teacher’s Manual and complete recordings of the play Othello and the opera Otello.

For more detailed information about the materials, visit our publications page.

Why opera?
As the national service organization for the field of opera, OPERA America is dedicated to sharing information and resources about opera, to extending its rich traditions, to embracing new works and to advocating for new expressions of the art form. M!W!O! was developed to reflect the highly interdisciplinary nature of opera and to promote the art form as an excellent tool to aid students and teachers in their explorations of history, language, literature and music. M!W!O! places students at the center of their learning as they work in partnership with teachers and artists to find new creative means of self-expression through the study of opera.

For more information about Music! Words! Opera!, please contact Education@operaamerica.org. To purchase Music! Words! Opera! materials, click here.

Winter 2009 Magazine Issue
  • Letter from the President/CEO
  • New Works
  • NEA Opera Honors
  • Opera Conference 2010
  • Creative Connections with Opera.Ca
Contact Us
330 Seventh Avenue, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10001
P 212-796-8620 • F 212-796-8631
Info@operaamerica.org • Directions
From Airport:
The easiest way to reach the OPERA America offices is to get a cab at the airport. Cost is $40-45
(not including tip).
  • JFK - Take the AirTrain ($5 - approx. 15 minutes) to the Jamaica Street Station and transfer to the Long Island Railroad (LIRR). Take the LIRR to Penn Station ($12 - approx. 35 minutes). See Penn Station directions below.
  • LaGuardia - Take the M60 Bus to the Hoyt Ave/31st Street. Get on the or Train and take that to 42nd/Times Square Station. Follow the Times Square Station directions below.
  • Newark - Take the New Jersey Transit train to Penn Station ($15 - approx. 45 min). See the Penn Station Directions below.

From Penn Station/Madison Square Garden:
Leave the station through the 7th Avenue/33rd Street exit and walk south for four blocks. The building is on
the right hand side.

From Grand Central Station:
Take the Train to the 42nd/Times Square station and transfer to the Train.
Take the Train to the 28th Street stop and walk north on 7th Avenue.
The building is on the same block as the train stop.

From 42nd Street/Times Square:
Take the Train to the 28th Street stop and walk north on 7th Avenue.
The building is on the same block as the train stop.

For more detailed directions, most up-to-date pricing or to specify a different starting location, please visit the
MTA Web site.