Allan Kozinn reports on the opera Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch’s Accuser composed by Lisa Bielawa, which will be broadcast over television or via the web in short installments over two years. I can imagine multiple ways students might engage with this as a topic or even the work itself, though I’m not yet familiar with the opera. The notion of creating music that can be shared in both a live setting (as this opera will be performed and filmed in front of live audiences) and in a serial format via the web or television could be an interesting context for students to create and share their own music. This might lead to wider exploration of sharing and distributing music in addition to performance and how musicians might design ways of engaging people. Additionally, students might explore how the serial format impacts how one experiences the music and perhaps more broadly, issues of continuity when music of a longer duration is split into smaller segments; the phenomenon of listening to songs or singles from an album rather than an album as a whole; ways that digital media, distribution, and streaming factor in the ways people experience music; and other related issues. What might serial formats of music distribution and sharing or performance look and sound like in k-12 or higher ed settings? Perhaps Verio: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch’s Accuser and the way it is planned to be shared with the public might serve as a springboard for broader musical inquiry and engagement?
The opera itself, includes a libretto that addresses issues of “gender identity, perception, and reality,” which could be interesting topics to explore in certain music education contexts.
Perhaps exploring these issues might even lead to interest in opera as a genre and creative medium, particularly when students have an opportunity to create their own operas in whatever context, format, or style they might find interesting. For instance, some students might be inspired by knowing about operas that draw on Hip-hop culture or musical hybrids that combine operatic and hip hop stylistic aspects such as Adidi The Unrocked Story, Hopera , Hip H’opera, The City (some of which have lyrics and content inappropriate for many school contexts), or Mike Ladd’s opera about the dueling infesticons and majesticons.
The idea of having students create and perform their own opera is hardly new. Take a look at some examples of programs:
Opera organizations such as Calgary Opera’s Let’s Create an Opera and Arizona Opera’s Original Opera programs
Harlem School for the Arts students creating an original opera A Bit of Me Died Today
Rio Rancho Public School students creating original operas
Stedwick Elementary School students’ original opera A Storm Inside
OperaCraft “OPERAcraft’s goal is to provide an opportunity for K-12 students to create and perform a fully produced virtual opera. Starting with music borrowed from Mozart operas and a specific number of characters, the project inspires K-12 students to create a story and then the libretto; create the virtual set through a custom version of ubiquitous Minecraft video game/ sandbox; create avatars for each character; and control said avatars within the confines of the virtual world, including body gestures, lip-syncing with real singing soloists, as well as multiple real-time camera feeds akin to that of a live video production.”
Also consider reading articles such as:
Ames, R. (1993). Collaborating to build an opera ensemble. Music Educators Journal, 31-34.
Bland, A. (1993). Original opera in middle school. Music Educators Journal, 27-30.
Partti, H., & Westerlund, H. (2013). Envisioning collaborative composing in music education: learning and negotiation of meaning in operabyyou.com. British Journal of Music Education, 30(02), 207-222. [Also take a look at operabyyou.com
Speake, C. J. (1993). Create an opera with elementary students. Music Educators Journal, 22-26.
My daughter was in Vireo, privileged to work with Ms. Bielawa and the other amazingly talented people in this project. These two episodes drew some singers from OCSA (Orange County School of the Arts), where the class Opera From Scratch is taught every year. The kids in the Classical Voice Conservatory work together to write a libretto, compose music and perform their opera, with help and guidance from their teachers. It is a wonderful, creative and highly satisfying experience for them. They come away with a new appreciation for the art form and the hard work behind the glossy performance.