OPERA America - Music! Words! Opera!

In 2007 the DFO substantially broadened its educational efforts by collaborating with OPERA America to promote enhanced inclusion of opera in K-12 music education curricula.

With the generous financial support of the Beim Foundation, the DFO sponsored the participation of 10 music teachers from schools in northern Minnesota in the Music! Words! Opera! (M!W!O!) curriculum during the 2007-2008 school year.

OPERA America, the National Service Organization for Opera, is the foremost advocate for opera in the United States. The cornerstone of its commitment to opera education is its Music!Words!Opera! program. As described by OPERA America, MUSIC! WORDS! OPERA! is a curriculum designed to help young people in grades K-12 discover the power of the arts through a hands-on experience with opera. Teachers and students explore a great operatic work in the context of its history, language, and music. They build on this knowledge to create an original operatic work becoming composers, librettists, and performers.

M!W!O! is designed to be taught by a classroom teacher in partnership with a music or other arts teacher. The curriculum is extremely flexible and can be implemented a number of ways depending on individual settings and teachers.

M!W!O! was developed to reflect the highly interdisciplinary nature of opera and to promote the art form as an excellent tool to aid students and teachers in their explorations of history, language, literature, and music. The M!W!O! curriculum places students at the center of their learning as they work in partnership with teachers and artists to find new creative means of self-expression through the study of opera (see Attachment G).

Here is how M!W!O! works. An opera company contracts with OPERA America to help implement the M!W!O! curriculum in area schools. Two trainers from OPERA America offer a one-week summer workshop for area K-12 classroom and music teachers. In the workshop, teachers learn the M!W!O! curriculum and--mirroring the project they will undertake with students--create their own original opera.

The workshop helps teachers relate opera to other subjects, paying particular attention to subject area standards, interdisciplinary connections, and assessment of student learning. The teachers then use their training and the extensive curriculum materials provided by OPERA America to teach opera to their K-12 students during the next - and subsequent - school years.

To assist the teachers following the workshop, the opera company designates a musically-talented and educationally-savvy Project Coordinator as a resource to teachers as they use the curriculum with students.

The M!W!O! curriculum is divided into three levels, all of which are taught in the summer workshop:

The heart of the DFO's collaboration with OPERA America was a web of interactions among teachers, students, school administrators, parents, OPERA America trainers, and DFO personnel, all committed to enhancing arts education in local schools with opera.

If you are a teacher who is interested in this unique training program, please contact the DFO at 218-728-8949.