Leave it to Opera

Do you know what I found in our offices? Guess. Come on, guess! It’s the most amazing thing ever!

I found...a steamer trunk full of costumes and props. (And if you’re new to the blog, let me tell you…I love costumes. I love dressing up.) So you can imagine my delight at finding a big box of wigs and capes and other assorted awesomeness.

But before I got too in-depth pretending to be an opera singer, I was discovered by Emilie Elmore, our Manager of Education & Community Programs. (I probably shouldn’t have hid in her office.)

Emilie explained that we’ve got these big steamer trunks that get taken to schools to introduce kids to opera. I had found our new “Opera for Beginner” trunk, which features La Bohème, Rusalka, and The Barber of Seville. (It almost matches our season, except Cinderella has its own trunk.)

So Emilie shows me everything in the trunk. (There were more than just costumes, apparently.) There were several books on opera, composers, specific operas and music. There are also DVD performances of the three operas. Emilie also explained that this opera trunk helps introduce kids to opera by including activities on acting and theater. So the kids get to dress up and act out scenes from the operas. There are also theater exercises that teach kids about staging and emotion.

So what’s going to happen to this trunk? The Education & Community Programs department will take it to different schools around the state, where students of all ages will get to play and explore. (Lucky kids!) You can find more information on our Education website.

Me, I’m going to see if I can’t try on a few more costume pieces…I think I make a rather fetching Musetta, don't you?

Ciao for now!

AriaGirl