A Morning at the Opera

This morning we had the good fortunate to attend a preview of the opera "Hansel and Gretel." This program was organized by another local  homeschooling mom. The Boston Lyric Opera provided a delightful program with one of the cast members and a pianist to introduce the kids to vocal performance and opera. Given we all live outside Boston, they sent the program to us!  We met at a local church with wonderful acoustics. They performed excerpts from the full length opera,"Hansel and Gretel" by Engelbert Humperdinck, taking them through the storyline and demonstrating how the music is used to heighten the emotions of the scenes. D was captivated once the singing started. The BLO provided us with a CD of excerpts of the opera which D insisted we listen to the entire way home. Inspiration ignited, we'll delve into a unit study in preparation for the full-length performance we will attend in March in Boston. The opera is in English, which provides an excellent opportunity for engagement of children in this expressive art form. And dare I say, adults?

Link to performance information and on-line learning materials.