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 produces 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.
For more information, e-mail Director of Education Andrea Walters or call 505-986-5955.
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