Outreach and Education
Opera Boston’s Education Program launched in 2001 with a generous gift in memory of Pearl Guzik, brings its company artists into diverse school and community settings with engaging, participatory programs that introduce children and adults to the excitement and beauty of live opera. Now in its fifth year, the Education Program is taking a number of exciting new directions, while continuing its popular Opera Shop workshops. Opera Boston has formed new partnerships with Young Audiences of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Streetwise Opera Theatre of London, Healing Arts Initiative of Vermont, NPR’s From the Top, and Partners for Student Success initiative led by Boston After School and Beyond, and The Wallace Foundation. Since its beginning in 2002, the program has grown to serve over 4000 children and adults at more than 30 locations throughout New England.
Opera Boston presents new productions of innovative opera, operetta, musical theatre repertoire and rarely heard works, along with groundbreaking opera education and outreach programs. Opera Boston’s annual season at the Cutler Majestic Theatre has earned it "Best of Boston" honors from The Boston Globe for eight consecutive years. The company also recently received the prestigious Opera America Success Award, given annually to an American opera company that demonstrated exceptional innovation and excellence in audience development.
The Opera Shop
The Opera Shop is an interactive learning experience for elementary and middle school students which is designed to help make opera accessible, educational, and fun. Incorporating material from well-known vocal works, such as Bernstein’s West Side Story and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, the program introduces opera to children at their own level. The Opera Shop is geared towards grades 4 through 6 and takes place in schools, after-school programs and community settings throughout Greater Boston, with a focus on under-served neighborhoods where children may have few opportunities to experience live music. Opera Boston artists lead one ninety-minute or two fifty-minute sessions during which the students participate in both scripted and improvisatory activities; these include exploring various elements of opera and rehearsing, performing and critiquing a short musical scene. The goals of the Opera Shop can be measured against the Massachusetts State Curriculum Frameworks, making it easy to integrate into the classroom. Opera Boston cast members have participated in workshops for high school choral groups and music students. For example, during Opera Boston’s 2005 production of Robert Ward’s The Crucible, principal cast members performed staged arias and scenes from the opera at Salem High School, and demonstrated the power of music when used in conjunction with drama. In the coming season, as Opera Boston invites selected school groups to its dress rehearsals, there will be opportunities for students to attend, giving them a full picture of the integration of music, acting, and design that staged opera offers. Young Audiences of Massachusetts
Opera Boston has been presented on the Young Audiences of Massachusetts roster since 2006. Young Audiences is the nation’s leading source of arts-in-education services whose mission is to help make the arts an essential part of young people’s education. Opera Boston artists present fully realized performances of Gian Carlo Menotti’s comic opera The Telephone, engage the students in participatory activities and field questions after the performance about the opera. The Telephone has been a success for Young Audiences and for Opera Boston, receiving 16 bookings over the two academic years it has been offered. Opera Boston aims to expand its offerings with Young Audiences in the upcoming season to offer schools a variety of programming options. Residencies and Collaborations School Groups
The inaugural effort of Opera Boston's education program took place in 2002 at the John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Somerville. During a four-month period, Opera Boston artists worked with the school’s faculty to bring the excitement of opera to 90 fifth- and sixth-graders. The program resulted in three performances of an original opera that was written by the students and principal with the help of Opera Boston’s artistic staff. The opera, called Live and Learn, explored the theme of bullying. This residency set the tone for Opera Boston’s education program; the program is committed to helping students express themselves and teaching them to engage with performance as a participant or as an active listener. The example of Live and Learn has guided and informed much of Opera Boston’s subsequent work in education and outreach. More recently, in collaboration with NPR's From the Top and Young Audiences, Opera Boston artists directed a "Make Your Own Radio Show" residency for a fifth-grade class at the bilingual Hurley School in Boston's South End. Students created a radio presentation about biodiversity and environmentalism that was recorded by WGBH. During the 2007-08 season, Opera Boston will be participating in Make Your Own Radio Show school residencies in Worcester, Cambridge and Boston. Opera Boston continues to develop programs for Boston area after-school programs. In conjunction with Boston After School and Beyond, Young Audiences, and the Wallace Foundation, Opera Boston artists participate in the Partners for Student Success (PSS) initiative. PSS is a multi-year program that aims to more tightly align in-school, out-of-school and community resources to ensure that struggling students get the support they need to succeed. Additional Opera Boston after-school programs have taken place at the Community Music Center in the South End, the Boys and Girls Club in Charlestown, the East Boston YMCA and the United South End Settlement House. Enrichment Partners
During Opera Boston’s 2007 production of Ainadamar, the scenic designer, Gronk--a Los Angeles-based muralist, performance and video artist--worked with Boston teenagers who participate as Teen Curators in Visual, Spoken Word, and Video Art at the Cloud Foundation in Boston’s Back Bay. Gronk and the Teen Curators created four collaborative abstract canvases that reflect "the different dynamics, emotions, and moods of the group during each session," in the words of one participant. Opera Boston and the Cloud Foundation are currently making plans for a summer residency to bring together the Cloud's Visual, Video, and Spoken Word Teen Curators to collaborate with artists and mentors, and local youth theater and dance groups to produce a 20 minute original opera based on the curators’ literary and visual creations. Arts Therapy
Opera Boston artists presented workshops for chronically ill and disabled adult patients at Tewksbury Hospital and for homeless adults at Boston’s St. Francis House and Pine Street Inn. The program, presented in April 2007, was conducted in collaboration with the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Streetwise Opera Theatre of London, and the Healing Arts Initiative of the Vermont Arts Exchange. Opera Boston has been invited to continue and expand its arts therapy program in 2008 with an in-depth residency to create a musical and dramatic production inspired by Ainadamar with hands-on performance opportunities for Tewksbury Hospital patients, expressive therapy staff and local high school students.
The Opera Shop is an interactive learning experience for elementary and middle school students which is designed to help make opera accessible, educational, and fun. Incorporating material from well-known vocal works, such as Bernstein’s West Side Story and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, the program introduces opera to children at their own level. The Opera Shop is geared towards grades 4 through 6 and takes place in schools, after-school programs and community settings throughout Greater Boston, with a focus on under-served neighborhoods where children may have few opportunities to experience live music. Opera Boston artists lead one ninety-minute or two fifty-minute sessions during which the students participate in both scripted and improvisatory activities; these include exploring various elements of opera and rehearsing, performing and critiquing a short musical scene. The goals of the Opera Shop can be measured against the Massachusetts State Curriculum Frameworks, making it easy to integrate into the classroom. Opera Boston cast members have participated in workshops for high school choral groups and music students. For example, during Opera Boston’s 2005 production of Robert Ward’s The Crucible, principal cast members performed staged arias and scenes from the opera at Salem High School, and demonstrated the power of music when used in conjunction with drama. In the coming season, as Opera Boston invites selected school groups to its dress rehearsals, there will be opportunities for students to attend, giving them a full picture of the integration of music, acting, and design that staged opera offers. Young Audiences of Massachusetts
Opera Boston has been presented on the Young Audiences of Massachusetts roster since 2006. Young Audiences is the nation’s leading source of arts-in-education services whose mission is to help make the arts an essential part of young people’s education. Opera Boston artists present fully realized performances of Gian Carlo Menotti’s comic opera The Telephone, engage the students in participatory activities and field questions after the performance about the opera. The Telephone has been a success for Young Audiences and for Opera Boston, receiving 16 bookings over the two academic years it has been offered. Opera Boston aims to expand its offerings with Young Audiences in the upcoming season to offer schools a variety of programming options. Residencies and Collaborations School Groups
The inaugural effort of Opera Boston's education program took place in 2002 at the John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Somerville. During a four-month period, Opera Boston artists worked with the school’s faculty to bring the excitement of opera to 90 fifth- and sixth-graders. The program resulted in three performances of an original opera that was written by the students and principal with the help of Opera Boston’s artistic staff. The opera, called Live and Learn, explored the theme of bullying. This residency set the tone for Opera Boston’s education program; the program is committed to helping students express themselves and teaching them to engage with performance as a participant or as an active listener. The example of Live and Learn has guided and informed much of Opera Boston’s subsequent work in education and outreach. More recently, in collaboration with NPR's From the Top and Young Audiences, Opera Boston artists directed a "Make Your Own Radio Show" residency for a fifth-grade class at the bilingual Hurley School in Boston's South End. Students created a radio presentation about biodiversity and environmentalism that was recorded by WGBH. During the 2007-08 season, Opera Boston will be participating in Make Your Own Radio Show school residencies in Worcester, Cambridge and Boston. Opera Boston continues to develop programs for Boston area after-school programs. In conjunction with Boston After School and Beyond, Young Audiences, and the Wallace Foundation, Opera Boston artists participate in the Partners for Student Success (PSS) initiative. PSS is a multi-year program that aims to more tightly align in-school, out-of-school and community resources to ensure that struggling students get the support they need to succeed. Additional Opera Boston after-school programs have taken place at the Community Music Center in the South End, the Boys and Girls Club in Charlestown, the East Boston YMCA and the United South End Settlement House. Enrichment Partners
During Opera Boston’s 2007 production of Ainadamar, the scenic designer, Gronk--a Los Angeles-based muralist, performance and video artist--worked with Boston teenagers who participate as Teen Curators in Visual, Spoken Word, and Video Art at the Cloud Foundation in Boston’s Back Bay. Gronk and the Teen Curators created four collaborative abstract canvases that reflect "the different dynamics, emotions, and moods of the group during each session," in the words of one participant. Opera Boston and the Cloud Foundation are currently making plans for a summer residency to bring together the Cloud's Visual, Video, and Spoken Word Teen Curators to collaborate with artists and mentors, and local youth theater and dance groups to produce a 20 minute original opera based on the curators’ literary and visual creations. Arts Therapy
Opera Boston artists presented workshops for chronically ill and disabled adult patients at Tewksbury Hospital and for homeless adults at Boston’s St. Francis House and Pine Street Inn. The program, presented in April 2007, was conducted in collaboration with the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Streetwise Opera Theatre of London, and the Healing Arts Initiative of the Vermont Arts Exchange. Opera Boston has been invited to continue and expand its arts therapy program in 2008 with an in-depth residency to create a musical and dramatic production inspired by Ainadamar with hands-on performance opportunities for Tewksbury Hospital patients, expressive therapy staff and local high school students.
For more information on Opera Boston's Outreach and Education programs, please contact education@operaboston.org