• So This Is Opera
• Carmen
• Sing Me a Story

Opera for Kids

Ask your average child what they think about opera, and you'll most likely get a bunch of bored looks and descriptions of zaftig women in Viking helmets singing incomprehensible lyrics.

Actually, ask many an adult about opera and the results won't be much different.

Not so, however, with a child (or former child), who's spent a week with Bowie, MD, music teacher Yvette Lewis. Lewis, 53, is the creator of So This Is Opera, a 5-day program that injects opera into grammar school curriculums. Her goal is to show kids that, if you understand what you're listening to, any music can be interesting and fun.

At the beginning of the week, however, "fun" is usually the last thing her students expect to have. They also don't expect a teacher quite like Lewis.

"Kids think opera singers are all fat ladies, but I'm a size 8," she says. "They say they think they're all European, but I'm African-American. They also say things like 'opera is very proper,' but then I tell them I used to sing in a rock band."

What's more, many of the kids are so unfamiliar with the music that they confuse the word "opera" with the name "Oprah," and then they think that Lewis actually is the talk show host.

Lewis teaches a different opera to each grade. The week starts with the children learning the story of an opera, using it as an opportunity to introduce them to another era, place, language, and culture. When it's time to learn songs, Lewis picks things that they're probably already familiar with - many pieces from Carmen, for example, are tunes they've heard in commercials or cartoons.

At the end, they put on a performance for their parents (who are often then inspired to find operas they can attend with their kids or to read them the tales of famous operas).

Recently, one boy was grousing so much about not wanting to attend the program that Lewis said she'd give him $5 if he didn't enjoy himself.

"At the end," she says, "he came up to me and said, 'I guess I'm not getting that $5.'"

 

Posted on May 15, 2006