Opera In Your Classroom

In-school programming is centered on interaction between students and artists, as well as active student participation. Focusing on the story and how it is transformed musically, each program serves to inform, entertain, foster greater artistic understanding, and provide an entry point to other aspects of opera, its component arts and other subjects.

Sing a Story: (Grades K- 3)
San Francisco Opera Guild’s exciting entry into the world of Opera! Each classroom visit will enchant and educate younger students and leave a lasting impression!

Opera à La Carte : (Grades 3 thru 8)
San Francisco Opera Guild's condensed version of an opera sung in English. This program is participatory, and requires 2-6 weeks of in-class preparation culminating in a school assembly with professional singers and musicians!

Book to Bravo: (Grades 5-8)
This brand new program, offered in the spring as either a continuation of the Opera à la Carte experience, or as a stand alone program, is a seasonal residency in which a team of teaching artists come to your classroom and help students create an original opera based on a myth or folk tale rooted in the curriculum of the class. Our artists will teach the basics of performance storytelling, libretto writing, and simple composition. The opera will then be cast, rehearsed, and performed in front of the school! Students will have the chance to see how a story becomes an opera and how a written piece comes alive on stage!!

Creative Opera Workshop: (Grades 9-12)
This exciting pilot program is an interactive classroom experience for teens in which a teaching artist collaborates with your classroom teacher, making curricular connections to an opera that is being offered as a student dress rehearsal. There are two to four classroom visits scheduled in which the artist introduces the world of the opera, the history, and the notion of conflict management and action/consequence in artistic storytelling as a model for life. Through role-playing and connection to modern day instances, the students interact with the material and begin to make more complex connections between art and life. This short-term artist residency is highlighted by professional singers at one classroom visit. Current Don Giovanni and Macbeth!

Opera-Live! Training and Performances

Opera Arts Summer Conservatory (Ages 10-15)
DOWNLOAD FORM HERE
Come Sing, Dance, Act, and learn with us this summer! Our exciting summer program will immerse young performers in the Opera Arts. Culminates in an original production and performance!

Student Dress Rehearsals: (Grades 3 thru 12)
Students from throughout Northern California come to the Opera House to attend final dress rehearsals of a Season's main stage production. All final dress rehearsals feature San Francisco Opera main stage artists and/or resident Adler Fellows Teachers’ Guides and Resource Books along with introductory CDs are available for all offerings.

Madeline H. Russell Night At The Opera: (Grades 9 thru 12)
A formal event exclusively for Bay Area high school students is held at the Opera House in conjunction with the final dress rehearsal of a Season's main stage production.

Other Education Services

Teacher Training:
Offered in September and January, this workshop is an opportunity for classroom teachers to work with teaching artists and specialists. Teachers will learn how to introduce their students to Opera and integrate it into curriculum and will learn how to use the Study Guides and Cd’s most effectively when preparing students to attend dress rehearsals. This one day, Saturday workshop is open to novices and opera buffs alike and is intended to help teachers incorporate the arts more fully into their academic curricula. History, listening, composition, and theatre games will be covered along with important accompanying classroom management skills.

Opera House Tours: (Grades 4 thru 12)
Students receive a tour of the War Memorial Opera House. For more information contact our Education Department, 415-565-3238.