Thursday!

Hi everyone!

I'll be in at the school tomorrow morning ready to build our opera libretto and storyline!
Please get clear about the way your opera begins, WHO are the people involved, comedy vs. tragedy and the conflict in the story.
We can work out how it ends on our feet in class!

MichaelRyanRyanMichael, tomorrow is the day we'll need you to be scribe and take our words down. I can spin them into a typed libretto later on.

Looking forward to seeing you all!
dd

Students' reactions

Michael - how is the class responding to the program thus far?

From Cathy

Absolutely wonderful session today with the Grade 7/8 class of Michael Ryan at Our Lady Of Lourdes. The students were attentive and participated wonderfully throughout the session. They had attended FIDELIO last night, so be began the session with a discuss of their observations and feelings about the performance. After a vocal warm-up, we reviewed five story ideas created by the students. Next we discussed sustained sounds and rhythm, and as I started to set up a drum loop keyboard one of the students improvised a vocal motif and text. From that motif we worked collaboratively to create a chorus and descant idea that will be part of our opera. After the class I had a brief visit with their string teacher to get an idea of their level of playing ability, as the students have expressed an interest in playing as well as singing in our piece.

This Thursday

On behalf of Cathy HELLO! and hope you are all jazzing on your ideas for our opera because first thing Thursday morning Cathy will be in to start setting your libretto and lyrics! Don't forget if you play an instrument to tell her!
On Monday the 26th I'll be back in and we will review your session with Cathy and begin to put it on it's feet. Check back here after your session on Thursday for helpful notes from Cathy and some reminders for Monday!!
See you soon!
Deann

Yahoo Day One!

What a great way to start our creation process!
Cathy and myself have the good fortune to be able to drive to and from our gig at the school.On the way in we talk about the class ahead and stress about traffic. On the way HOME! WELL! We could not stop talking about what a great experience we had at the school today and what a respectful, cool, creative and smart bunch of young people we get to work with!
Today we dove into the world of opera in the gorgeous library space with the enthusiastic support of teacher Michael Ryan.
We discussed opera form, terminology, process, what to expect over the next 6 weeks of each and then YES! we got busy and brainstormed our opera ideas, improvised with music, made some discoveries and set down the work for the coming week.

Four current themes: Life in Toronto (neighborhood)
Gangs and Guns
Morning Forever
Jesus
We spoke of dramatic conflict, Light versus Dark/Good versus Evil, Jesus Gang (the disciples),
too little daylight.
Comedy or Tragedy?

The challenge for this week:
Using the themes above, write 2 or three story ideas with a clear beginning, middle (big dramatic conflict), resolution?and end.

This class is talented and there are many string players. There are multiple languages available to us. There are dancers!
So don't forget to incorporate your talents and put them to masterful use in our Opera!

Cathy sends her hellos and like me is looking forward to next week at Our Lady of Lourdes.
Deann

Cathy & Deann - I'm glad to hear that you're back for another round of Create-an-Operas.

Michael - I'm thrilled that you've decided to do this program with your students. You're certainly ready for this challenge!

Zoë has put many resources on the blog for you:
- a CAO Teacher Resource Guide - with an idea of some of the activities that might happen week to week, basic materials needed etc.
- Photo Release form - please ensure that all the forms are signed and returned to Zoë by the end of the program.
- additional websites or documents will be posted in the coming weeks.

Best of luck to you!
Katherine