In 1975, under the auspices of the Manhattan School of Music, an opera for children project was initiated at Public School 75 in New York City. Its aim was to acquaint the public school's faculty, parents, and students with the technical and performance aspects of opera production. (Author)

This handbook has been built around the experiences of teachers and cognitive psychologists working together in opera education to identify, design, and produce an effective approach to bring together the divergent approaches to assessment and evaluation, mandated testing, and authentic documentation of learning. The handbook is designed to…

The author describes the evolution of the American musical since 1750 and emphasizes the often overlooked importance of the orchestrator. She discusses the talents of several extraordinarily gifted musicians. (KC)

Our ordinary view of relating to works of art is based on the assumption that they are objects occurring separate from us, detached and independent. Investigates what we need to know in order to appreciate and understand works of art, to bridge the gap between ourselves and the art work. (Author/RK)

Describes class activities for incorporating and teaching about opera into the Italian language instruction classroom, focusing on the enhancement of cultural knowledge and understanding that opera offers. (CB)

Describes the picture book rendition of the operatic story "Aida" (based on the opera composed by G. Verdi) as retold by opera diva Leontyne Price. Describes how this picture book is appropriate for introducing adolescent readers to opera. Describes specific activities for music classes, musical resources, specific art activities, and…

The effect of lecture-demonstrations and workshops on changing elementary school children's attitudes toward drama (acting), music, dance and opera is the focus of this experimental report. Three self-report interest scales and a peer interest rating were administered in a pretest post-test format. The results indicated only slight attitude change…

A model performing arts program (The Arts from the Inside Out) for gifted and talented elementary students at the Robert Blair Pollock Elementary School in Philadelphia (PA), provides children with first-hand backstage experience with opera, music, dance, drama, filmmaking, and architecture. (CL)

Describes (in the form of an opera libretto in five acts) the experience of creating an opera in a first-grade bilingual classroom. Shows that literacy is not reading and writing, opera is not inaccessible, and art is not a frill. Finds that children made flexible use of sign systems and achieved some degree of bilingualism. (SR)

This article discusses how a social studies teacher taught her middle school students about the components of an opera and prepared her students for putting on an opera. The development of the opera and how the opera training related to the social studies, language arts, and music curriculum are addressed. (Contains 1 reference.) (CR)

This article describes a program of the Lyric Opera Company of Chicago (Illinois) that brought opera to the classroom of students with deafness in grades three through six. The four-session program explored vocabulary, music, story-telling, and Japanese culture and culminated in a student production of "Madame Butterfly." (JDD)

Describes an innovative college history course which studied various operas and their librettos as representative of political and social history. (AV)

This article took us to the elementary school level for a description of a highly successful program that developed opera lovers among the children in the Tucson, Arizona schools. (Editor/RK)

In San Rafael (California) a series of assembly programs and art shows exposes students to cultural events. (JM)