Student-Produced Opera
The Student-Produced Opera program provides children throughout northern New Mexico the opportunity to set their own stories to music. Children on the Cochiti and Santa Clara Pueblos helped the program get its start in 1991 as they wrote and produced bilingual operas based on Native American folk tales. Since then, the program has given rise to many operas with Native American themes, as well as several other bilingual operas.
Guided by theater and composer artists-in-residence, children begin by drawing from their imaginations, popular literature and culture, and social or historical themes, as well as personal mythologies, for the subjects of their own operas. Once the stories are complete and set to music, the children design and build their costumes and scenery. They then are cast in roles and work sessions become "rehearsals."
Every year there are approximately 30 Student-Produced Operas in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Bernalillo, Rio Rancho and other communities throughout the state. To date more than 12,000 children have produced 175 operas, performing to audiences of parents, classmates, and friends totaling nearly 50,000 people. Upcoming Student Produced Opera Festival performances include:
SANTA FE
Tuesday, March 23, 6pm
Wednesday, March 24, 6pm
Scottish Rite Masonic Center at 463 Paseo De Peralta.
ALBUQUERQUE
Monday, March 29, 6pm
National Hispanic Cultural Center at 1701 Fourth Street Southwest.
CHIMAYO
Thursday, April 8, 6pm
Boys and Girls Club of Chimayo at Chimayo Elementary School at 31 County Road 93.
RIO RANCHO
Wednesday, April 14, 6 pm
Rio Rancho High School - Performing Arts Center at 301 Loma Colorado.
For more information, e-mail Director of Education Andrea Walters or call 505-986-5955.
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