Those of you who have attended Metropolitan Opera simulcasts...

[Jane in NC]

This is something that I have been meaning to do but we have not gotten around to it. That will change in the new year.

 

Here is what I am thinking. Since my son loves classical myths, attending a production of Orfeo ed Euridice seems like a good idea. The only operas that he has heard previously in live productions are The Magic Flute and Turandot, although he has listened to opera on the radio via the Met broadcasts and has attended a couple of light opera performances. (We love Gilbert and Sullivan!)

 

The Magic Flute did not need much preparation since he knew the story from the Classical Kids CD. I think that I could have done a better job of preparing my then jaded young adolescent for Turandot. One must suspend belief in reality when attending opera otherwise the melodrama seems just plain silly. So how do I prepare him for Orfeo ed Euridice? How do you prepare your high school aged kids for an experience that is a bit out of the norm for them?

 

Thanks in advance.

Jane

 

P.S. For information on the Met simulcasts at a theater near you, click here.

[Jane in NC]

I just remembered a book that I bought years ago: Sing Me a Story, the Metropolitan Operas Book of Opera Stories for Children, by Jane Rosenberg with an introduction by Luciano Pavarotti. The book contains fifteen stories, presented act by act, based on classic operas like Aida, Die Fledermaus, Porgy and Bess, etc. It also tells the tale of Amahl and the Night Visitors, a lovely one act opera which we attended earlier in the month. This is a terrific introduction to opera for children who will be charmed by the Christmas related tale.

[Moira in MA]

The Teaching Company's How to Listen to and Understand Great Opera has 4 wonderful lectures on Orfeo -- Robert Greenberg takes you all the way through.

 

HTH

~Moira

[Jane in NC]

The Teaching Company's How to Listen to and Understand Great Opera has 4 wonderful lectures on Orfeo -- Robert Greenberg takes you all the way through.

 

HTH

~Moira

 

Our library has these! Yippee!

 

But the bad news is that the four lectures are on Monteverdi's Orfeo. The Met is performing Gluck's. Pfui.

[Jane in NC]

Well...I just keep finding stuff now that I am looking! Tomorrow evening our public television station is airing "Doctor Atomic", the modern opera by John Adams, as part of Great Performances. I also noticed that Great Performances has some educational resources on the web (click here) which might prove to be helpful to those of you looking for something extra for your fine arts curriculum.

 

The Great Performances website also shows that Kevin Kline will be taking on the role of Cyrano in January! That should be great fun. I just hope our public television station airs the program.

[Michelle in MO]

Well...I just keep finding stuff now that I am looking! Tomorrow evening our public television station is airing "Doctor Atomic", the modern opera by John Adams, as part of Great Performances. I also noticed that Great Performances has some educational resources on the web (click here) which might prove to be helpful to those of you looking for something extra for your fine arts curriculum.

 

The Great Performances website also shows that Kevin Kline will be taking on the role of Cyrano in January! That should be great fun. I just hope our public television station airs the program.

 

The Met also has this educator's guidefor Dr. Atomic. It might come in handy!

[Jenny in Florida]

. . . we really don't do much preparation. Usually, we go over the story, although my 10-year-old son has recently asked that we not read to the very end, because he likes to be surprised. If possible, we look at some stills or video of a performance and maybe listen to a little of the music.

 

That's pretty much it.

 

My son, especially, really enjoys opera. He's seen The Magic Flute, The First Emperor, La Traviata, Aida, Il Trovatore and multiple versions of various Gilbert and Sullivan shows. He also sang in the children's chorus of Turandot and helped to workshop a new piece last year.

 

We have tickets for Orfeo ed Euridice, too, and we're really looking forward to that. We had tickets for Salome back in October but had to skip it because my son had choir and ballet stuff that could not be missed. We're also going to see La Cenerentola in May. And our DVR is already set for Doctor Atomic. (By the way, our PBS station is airing a documentary about the making of Doctor Atomic on Independent Lens. You might want to see if you can catch that, too.) My daughter is excited about Doctor Atomic, because the woman who sings the lead came to her college and my daughter got to hear her sing and meet her.

 

Oh, and for what it's worth, the plot line of Turandot is just plain odd. I finally decided it might be best not to worry too much about following the story. I just couldn't work up any interest in either of the lead characters and their love story. But the music is gorgeous.

Edited December 28, 2008 by Jenny in Florida

[Jane in NC]

The Met also has this educator's guidefor Dr. Atomic. It might come in handy!

 

Hi Michelle,

 

Hurrah, I found a guide for Gluck's Orfeo, prepared by the Victorian Opera (Australia), a 41 page PDF found here. One can ignore the specifics on the Australian production to glean useful information as well as a few "How many sopranos does it take to change a light bulb?" jokes. The kit was definitely written for students.

 

It seems that every arts related thing we have done this year in school goes back to Ovid. I keep wondering if this is coincidence on our part or if (almost) all literary themes in the West either lead back or give a nod to Ovid.

 

Jane

[Janice in NJ]

We've seen several operas in the last couple of years. I've found that the kids really didn't need that much prep in order to enjoy them. We've seen them at the Met so we have a chance to read the synopsis before the performance begins, but a quick run-down of the story-line is all they've needed in order to enjoy it.

 

A couple of things to remember:

1. The translation is available at the bottom of the screen. Makes it easy to understand for those of use whose French and German isn't up to snuff. :001_smile:

 

2. The story lines are not usually that complex: someone falls in love with someone else. The bad guy doesn't want things to work out for them. Most of the lead-players die. (Suicide is for winners.) In fact, if your name is in the title of the opera, there's no way your makin' it out alive, baby! (Family joke: 1. In Star Trek you never make it off the planet's surface if your outfit is red; but in the opera, the red-suited, no-names are the only guys left standing at the end. 2. No one calls the cops when someone is murdered, they all wax poetic by singing over the corpse.) Can you tell that we LOVE to have fun!!! :001_smile: .... AND we like the opera!

 

3. It's not necessarily a bad thing to nod off in the middle of a performance. Sometimes it's actually a cool thing to doze in and out of consciousness to the hypnotic music. :001_smile:

 

4. Have fun!

 

Peace,

Janice

 

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

 

P.S. Dh's name is buried in the credits as they go flying by at the end. I've never been able to catch it on PBS when we've watching the re-broadcast, but ds say's that he's seen it. John is the Audio Operations Director; we enjoy listening to his credit at the end of the NPR broadcast on Saturdays. Sometimes we just turn it on to listen to the credit. :001_smile:

 

ENJOY the opera! I would love to see La Rondine; we saw Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna in a live concert last summer in Brooklyn. They were awesome. I didn't get a chance to see Dessay in Lucia last year but really enjoyed Anna Netrebko in Romeo and Juliet so I'm sure that she'll be awesome in Lucia. I had the chance to see Butterfly this season; it was a different soprano, but the production is stunning. Just stunning. We LOVED Dessay last year in La Fille du Régiment; I think it is my daughter's favorite. So I'm hoping that we get the chance to see her in La Sonnambula. John said that Fleming was AWESOME in Thais, so I'm hoping to catch a rebroadcast of that one too. I don't know anything about Orfeo ed Euridice but hope you like it. I personally didn't like Atomic but YMMV. :001_smile: (Can you tell that I really enjoy these though? My first opera was two years ago; we went to see The Magic Flute. Then dh started working there; now I'm addicted; I LOVE it. It really is a grand and wonderful thing. Sometimes I still can't get over how they do what they do - and they do it live. And then they do another production that evening. Different opera. It is really something; I find the behind the scene's world almost as wonderful as watching the production. Rambling.... sorry.... Enjoy the opera!)

[Jane in NC]

We've seen several operas in the last couple of years. I've found that the kids really didn't need that much prep in order to enjoy them. We've seen them at the Met so we have a chance to read the synopsis before the performance begins, but a quick run-down of the story-line is all they've needed in order to enjoy it.

 

A couple of things to remember:

1. The translation is available at the bottom of the screen. Makes it easy to understand for those of use whose French and German isn't up to snuff. :001_smile:

 

2. The story lines are not usually that complex: someone falls in love with someone else. The bad guy doesn't want things to work out for them. Most of the lead-players die. (Suicide is for winners.) In fact, if your name is in the title of the opera, there's no way your makin' it out alive, baby! (Family joke: 1. In Star Trek you never make it off the planet's surface if your outfit is red; but in the opera, the red-suited, no-names are the only guys left standing at the end. 2. No one calls the cops when someone is murdered, they all wax poetic by singing over the corpse.) Can you tell that we LOVE to have fun!!! :001_smile: .... AND we like the opera!

 

3. It's not necessarily a bad thing to nod off in the middle of a performance. Sometimes it's actually a cool thing to doze in and out of consciousness to the hypnotic music. :001_smile:

 

4. Have fun!

 

Peace,

Janice

 

 

 

Oh Janice, you are one of my favorite posters on these boards!

 

My sixteen year old son was absolutely delighted by your advice. I think that the reason I wanted to do some prep was due to the number of whiney complaints that I listened to after Turandot. Was he trying to get my goat? Maybe. He was fourteen at the time so who knows... He had no problem with Amahl a couple of weeks ago, but one of his friends had the starring role. He was so supportive!

 

How cool that your husband has the audio job with the Met! Is it all "business" for him or does he listen to the operas?

 

Jane (who still wants to be your neighbor)

[Jane in NC]

 

Oh, and for what it's worth, the plot line of Turandot is just plain odd.

 

Snort! One really does need to suspend a focus on reality when hearing opera. Perhaps my then literal fourteen year old had trouble doing that with Turandot which is why I was trying to try a different course of action. I think we will look at the Australian guide for a bit of information on the composer, etc., but not make a big deal of the prep work.

 

Thank you!

Jane

[Janice in NJ]

Oh Janice, you are one of my favorite posters on these boards!

 

My sixteen year old son was absolutely delighted by your advice. I think that the reason I wanted to do some prep was due to the number of whiney complaints that I listened to after Turandot. Was he trying to get my goat? Maybe. He was fourteen at the time so who knows... He had no problem with Amahl a couple of weeks ago, but one of his friends had the starring role. He was so supportive!

 

How cool that your husband has the audio job with the Met! Is it all "business" for him or does he listen to the operas?

 

Jane (who still wants to be your neighbor)

 

Jane,

Glad to hear that your son is looking forward to the opera. Older ds, my math-science guy, enjoys going but I try not to make him do too much prep. He gets what he gets; I think it's best to let them take away what they will rather than make it seem "hard" - something that they have to reach for. On the other hand, dd lays on the couch and watches and re-watches the DVD's; she has portions memorized. So we definitely have a range of interest here.

 

And I'm glad that you enjoyed Goldman's TC lectures. I have the DVD's; I watch them on my laptop with all kinds of helps/searches running in the background. It is taking me FOREVER to get through them - lots of rewinding, pausing, reading from other sources, and rewinding and hmmmmmm. Some weekend, I'm going to lock the bedroom door and hide in there and listen to them straight through. But I am enjoying them even if it's only a bit at a time.

 

The opera. Yes, dh listens. :001_smile: If he doesn't listen to the opera, you won't hear it either. :001_smile: LOTS of "business" for him too though. It's a lot of responsibility, so it helps that he loves the job. I miss him; he's gone for long hours - usually for 6 days a week during the season. But when I get a chance to go, I share his love for the place. I never go without wanting to work there too when youngest ds heads off to college. I can't imagine what I would do. Do they pay people to watch the opera? :001_smile: 'Cause I like that part.

 

Have fun!

 

Peace,

Janice (Who wants to be neighbors too! We could go to the opera together; we could discuss string theory in the car on the way- that is if YOU could explain it to ME! I'll try not to be a dolt. :001_smile:)