Opening Act

Opening Act: Discovering Opera Through Creative Play is a new series of workshops for families and young children. Covering a range of topics—including voice types, characters and emotions, choreography and set design, and musical form and composition—these sessions will provide an engaging introduction to operatic storytelling through movement, play, and hands-on activities and demonstrations. The program will comprise four hour-long Saturday workshops. Each workshop will be hosted at the Met Opera house and led by a Met teaching artist. Registration is open to guardians and children aged 4-6; space is limited.

March 22: Singing High and Low (Donizetti, La Fille du Régiment)
March 29: Character and Emotion (Rossini, Il Barbiere di Siviglia)
April 5: Choreography and Set Design (Bizet, Carmen)
April 12: Form and Composition (Mozart, The Magic Flute)

NOTE: The registration fee includes all four Saturday workshops; workshops cannot be purchased individually.

Week 1

In this session, participants will learn all about singing through Donizetti’s ebullient comedy La Fille du Régiment. They will start by watching a performance of Act II trio “Tous les troit reunis” before transitioning to a movmement activity that uses boomwackers to make high and low sounds. After watching another performance of the Act I tenor aria “Ah! mes amis” (with its notorious nine high Cs), attendees will use movement to illustrate high and low sounds and craft their own paper animal characters.
Week 2

This workshop explores aspects of character and emotion through Rossini’s effervescent comedy Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Participants will begin by watching a Bugs Bunny animation of the opera’s famous overture, identifying character traits with emoji cards. After learning more about operatic overtures, they will watch a performance of the Act I soprano aria “Una voce poco fa” and use colorful scarves to highlight emotions. Finally, they will use the paper animals made the previous week to give their characters individual personalities.
Week 3

In our third workshop, participants will enter the worlds of choreography and scenic design through Bizet’s tragic masterpience Carmen. They will begin by watching a performance of “Les tringles de sistres tintaient” from Act II of the opera, identifying how movements contribute to the story. After a quick game of “I Spy” with images of the Carmen set and props, attendees will create their own dance inspired by Carmen while listening to the famous Toreador Song. Finally, they will decide how their crafted paper animal characters move and where they live.
Week 4

The final session uses Mozart’s enchanting fable The Magic Flute to introduce musical form and composition. We will begin by watching a performance of “Pa- Pa- Pa- Papagena” duet, before learning about short-form songs. Participants will then watch a performance of the famous Queen of the Night aria and identify the shape of her vocal lines. After exploring graphic score notation, they will compose graphic score songs for their crafted animal characters—to be performed by the whole group!