Learning to love opera, one step at a time, through the ears of a child

I'll confess that I've never really been a lover of opera. And I'll confess also that no one ever took the time to teach me to love it. I remember really loving the occasional "operas" on Mister Rogers Neighborhood when I was a child. But my love ended there. When I was 13, I performed three major performances with a large opera company. But I was a dancer, not a singer. I danced as an angel in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. Though I was in awe of the elaborate costumes and sets, the music did nothing for me. It wasn't an art form I was going to understand or enjoy.

As a dancer I was in love with the ballet, and enjoyed soaking in the choreography of Petipa, Balanchine, Fokine, Njinsky and others. And I learned to love the music of many wonderful composers through my love of the ballet. So I learned to appreciate and know many works of Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Bach, Mozart and many other composers. But still, opera had no appeal. During high school, my best friend's father loved opera. Whenever we rode in the car with him, he would be listening to opera. I wondered how it could possibly hold his attention. Really, I wondered how he could even endure it.

As a young student living in St. Petersburg, Russia in the 1990's, I determined to make opera my own. I could go to the Marinsky Theatre almost any day, pay about $5, and see world-class opera and ballet. What better way to spend an evening after classes were over? Even if I went alone, it was magnificent. Of course, I took the time to see many of my favorite ballets - Giselle, The Firebird, Swan Lake and others. But I really determined to try opera on for size. Maybe if I saw it in such a magnificent theatre with meticulously trained voices, I would love it. Maybe. I saw a few while I was there. Madame Butterfly. The Magic Flute. I honestly can't remember what else. German operas mainly. It didn't stick. I wasn't sold. And I concluded that maybe I'm just not the opera type. I had truly given it the old college try. Even a couple years later, when I married a man who adores the music of Pavarotti, I was not won over. He could blast those arias in our living room all he wanted, I wasn't going to enjoy it.

Then, this past fall, I watched on DVD a truly magnificent 1990 production of Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov conducted by the very talented Valery Gergiev with Robert Lloyd as Godunov. Suddenly, unexpectedly, I was in love. I couldn't get enough. I brought home a copy and made my husband watch it. Granted, the subject matter is one that I'm very comfortable with, frankly, one I love. Granted, I was watching it while assistant teaching a class in Russian Culture and thinking carefully about how to teach college students to love this opera. So I was soaking in the music, the themes, the unbelievable acting, the unusual sets, the layers of folk music with church hymnography with traditional arias, and the breath-taking ability of Robert Lloyd. And I was thinking about how to explain these themes to students who didn't know as much about Russian Culture as I do. But I had so much fun with it. I decided that week that maybe I could love opera. Just maybe.

So, I was delighted when the end of our K12 music curriculum this year was a five-lesson study of Mozart's The Magic Flute. I couldn't wait to see what K12 did with it and what I could begin to learn about Mozart's opera. If I had learned to love Russian opera, maybe it was worth revisiting German opera. We had so much fun with this study!



The K12 material was simple, but just right to pull my 7yo in to the music and story. The lessons divided the narrative of the opera into 5 sections. At the beginning of each lesson we read a chapter in the narrative. My 7yo loved hearing the tale of Tamino, Pamina, Papageno, Sarastro and the Queen of the Night. The story has so many unexpected twists and turns, so each chapter left him wanting to hear the next. At the end of each chapter, we would listen to one or two short pieces from the opera. Included in our materials was a great CD of highlights from The Magic Flute. During the five lessons, we focused on 5 pieces from this collection. As always with K12's music, the listening was focused to help him pull something relevant from his listening. My son really enjoyed listening for the kind voice of Sarastro in "O Isis and Osiris" and for the anger in the voice of the Queen of the Night in "Der Hoelle Rache kocht in meinen Herzen." (He also enjoyed trying to sing along with the VERY high soprano sections of this piece.) But I knew he was hooked when we got to the last lesson. That's when we read the last chapter when Pagageno is united with Papagena and Tamino with Pamina. The chapter did a great job describing how Papageno cannot even find words to sing when he tries to speak to Papagena. 7yo laughed and laughed that all Papageno could sing was "pa-pa-pa-pa." When the time came for the listening section, we had a few pieces to use. But he begged to hear the duet between Papageno and Papagena. So, he happily laughed aloud as he heard the two sing "Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Papageno." I never even bothered him that everything was in German. And before I knew it, he was asking to hear some other pieces from the CD. And then, when we were finished, I found him staying at the stereo, to start at the beginning and hear more of the selections! He really enjoyed it. When his dad got home for lunch, 7yo insisted on playing a few of his favorite arias for his dad. And in the midst of it, I found myself also wanting to hear more from the opera. (And wondering how I missed so much of the beauty when I saw this opera in a beautiful theatre years ago.)

I think maybe it's time to find a good video of a performance of The Magic Flute. And I'll look forward to exploring some more opera with my kids next year. Thanks to K12 for helping us learn to love it!