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Students learn to love magic of opera
Opera Theatre targets "La Boheme" opening
By Janice Denham
jdenham@yourjournal.com
Starry-eyed patrons in the sellout crowd of almost 1,000 Saturday, May 23, will include 20 students from Kirkwood High School, experiencing Puccini's "La Boheme" on opening night of the 2009 season of Opera Theatre of St. Louis.
Teacher Kerry Arens planned the event to culminate their study of opera in an honors freshman literature and composition course. Her students typically work with "Romeo and Juliet" as a tragedy at the end of the school year. Jeanne Eichhorn, who taught a masterpieces course at Parkway North High School, inspired Arens. The Kirkwood teacher determined to culminate her own students' interest with a live performance of Opera Theatre.
The first-year students saw Gounod's "Romeo and Juliet." Then Arens invited a docent to join their musical journey.
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During the last two years, Karen Dahman has helped bring opera to life for them. Dahman became a docent for Opera Theatre four years ago after her retirement from the Pattonville School District. She used opera in her curriculum for gifted fifth-graders.
"I approach it from the point of its music although I'm not a music major, and as a story with plot and character," Dahman said.
Last year Kirkwood students compared the story of the young lovers to "Madame Butterfly," another Puccini opera.
"We've been lucky enough to pair it the last two years with (Opera Theatre). The students find what an effect an amazing play can have on your life, then if you go and see a performance, how you can be transformed," said Arens, reflecting the ambiance in her voice.
Beyond typical class
The interests of a docent such as Dahman increases the benefit. She invited Mark Wilson, who teaches theater at Saint Louis University, to share expertise in lighting and set design. On a mini-stage he brought last year, he showed how lighting affects an opera's mood. Sprinkling glitter as pseudo-snow this year, he evoked a street bohemian scene, as in "La Boheme." A student from the university added new perspective.
"Kids who work behind the scenes in our own productions here have been amazed, particularly that they could even earn a living doing that," Arens said.
One of four Opera Theatre productions in 2009 is "Salome," which Richard Strauss wrote in 1905. It became this season's specialty for Gailya Barker of Clayton, co-chair of docents. She was one of 22 docents who took information from workshops, training and research not just to schools, but also to civic and cultural groups, churches, synagogues, libraries and retirement homes.
"We usually highlight one opera which we can present for 45 minutes to an hour," Barker said. "Docents use whatever personal skills they have. There are musical excerpts, highlighting the story, explaining the author. My presentation is done with piano."
Feeling of community
Piquing the interest of people, whether passionate about opera or new listeners, is their goal. Some avidly wait for tickets to go on sale, while others simply are touched by a new experience.
Diane McCullough of south St. Louis taught docents this year. Now retired from St. Louis Public Schools, she became acquainted with the docent program in the early 1990s when she taught music at Carr Lane Visual & Performing Arts Middle School.
"Docents are the tip of the iceberg in educational programs for Opera Theatre," she said. "It makes people, children and adults feel more connected with the community."
The original string that tied Arens' Kirkwood High students to opera holds firm. Some sophomores will join the younger students for "La Boheme." They dress up for their night at the opera, a local cultural icon. They start with dinner on the green Loretto-Hilton lawn and enjoy dessert by candlelight at intermission.
"Last year, looking out over them with their appetizers and sparkling cider, I was so excited that I could celebrate the end of the year with them," Arens said. "They had moved through the passage of high school. They did it in style. It was magical."
Season from the seats
Opera Theatre of St. Louis will present four operas in English between May 23 and June 28 at the Loretto-Hilton Theater at Webster University, 130 Edgar Road in Webster Groves. The curtain rises at 8 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Matinees at 1 p.m. take place on some Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Pre-show picnics on the lawn are welcome.
Performances are staggered through the festival season. For more information, consult http://www.opera-stl.org or call (314) 961-0644.
La Boheme: Giacomo Puccini's romantic music, overlaying a heartbreaking story, has elicited tears and laughter since 1896.
Salome: The sensual work of Richard Strauss tells about the young dancer who asked for the head of John the Baptist.
Il Re Pastore: Brilliant, young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart pits the demands of a shepherd's love against being king.
The Ghosts of Versailles: John Corigliano's Marie Antoinette and her ghostly pals consider whether history, including her beheading, should be rewritten.
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