This month Evergreen students have been learning about Opera with Ms. Sousa, in preparation for Calgary Opera’s performance of The Witty Squirrel. Opera was born in Florence, Italy, during the 16th century. A group of musicians called the "Camerata Florentina" showed their fasciation for Ancient Greece by telling the story in a song. Students looked at the different emotions in opera, and how they can interpret the story being told in an opera by just watching the emotions of the performers. They practiced labeling, describing, identifying, and interacting with emotions as they relate to storytelling in opera. The best stories evoke emotion. Students learned how emotions drive opera storylines, listened to famous emotional pieces found in opera, and played emotional charades. Emotional charades is a game where students stand spread out through the space, count down from three, and speak an emotion. They learned how to use their entire bodies and faces to exaggerate emotions, as seen in the opera examples they went through during class. Some of the emotions students learned were happy, sad, angry, confused, excited, scared, and love. Then, students identified the emotions in the classic Bugs Bunny cartoon – What’s Opera Doc? https://vimeo.com/444002896 . After watching the video, they were able to retell the basic plot and demonstrate the emotions they observed. When learning about opera, it is important to understand the story behind the opera you are watching in order to interpret what is happening on stage.
The Witty Squirrel Opera follows a toothless squirrel who has one big goal: to earn golden teeth by preparing a magnificent feast for the King. There’s just one catch: she doesn’t know the first thing about cooking! What could go wrong? Well, everything, but that’s what makes this adventure so much fun. After attempting to cook for many hours, the squirrel comes to realize her teeth have suddenly grown back! Not in need of the king's offer of golden teeth, the squirrel runs away into the forest and leaves the king and his court without the food that was promised.
Students learned how the opera is divided into many different parts like instruments, costumers, story, and scenery (props, staging). Each one of these parts makes the opera complete. Music is performed by an orchestra made up of instrumentalists. Scenery and costumes are made to fit a story that will be put into song.
We also learned a special song from “The Witty Squirrel” to perform with the opera singers when they came to visit Evergreen School this week! When the king invites his very important friends and dignitaries from all around the world to the Squirrel's feast. This is where the students got to participate in their own special opera moment! They learned how to sing and dance along to this special song. the lyrics for this song were:
- through the dessert,
- over oceans,
- with excitement,
- with devotion,
- delegations from all nations,
- we have responded to your call!
Angela McPhee
Principal