HarryJ: I've been thinking about different performance opportunities I can give my better choral students at Consolidated HS. One idea was to try something in the world of opera, but most don't have (or probably wouldn't develop) good enough language skills to sing in the original. Of course, I could go for something "quasi" like Porgy and Bess, or a simpler piece like Albert Herring. But I'd like to broaden their exposure, and we might get a bigger turnout with better-known composers like Puccini or Mozart. Any ideas on what's reasonable to expect from high-school kids without much formal training?

Replies to this Discussion Poster Posted Reply SusanB: Don't underestimate the kids' abilities. Children in our church choirs routinely sing in Latin and occasionally French or German (though seldom at a solo level where pronunciation flaws would be more noticeable). I think the advantage of gaining new appreciation for the language (sung vs. spoken) would outweigh the challenge of dealing with both the music and the language together. SusanB 5/28/2003 4:48PM Jennifer80: Why don't you contact the Indianapolis Opera or IU to see what their experience suggests? IU does most of its opera productions in English even though their students can obviously handle the languages. And the Indy Opera has done both, though they might be more helpful talking from their experience in doing educational outreach programs. Jennifer80 5/28/2003 4:52PM JimmyD: But what are you really trying to accomplish? If it's exposure to a particular musical form, it shouldn't matter (at this level) that much whether it's in translation or not. If it's more like cultural studies, then maybe the original language would be more important. JimmyD 5/29/2003 7:19AM Ramy12: Were you thinking of doing a whole opera? That could be a lot for both the kids and their parents (probably the largest part of the audience!), not to mention staging, costumes, etc. If you did something like a "Mozart night" or a "French music night" and included one act of a famous opera with minimal staging and no costumes (maybe Act I of Figaro or Act I of Carmen), you could probably make the language issues more manageable, get the exposure you want, etc. Then other parts of the program could feature instrumental music or other choral music from the composer or period or whatever. Ramy12 5/28/2003 8:19PM Pages: 1 2 Next page »