The Long-Awaited Opera!

Here's the short facebook version:

Katelyn got to do the coolest thing on earth this year (for a performance-loving girl!)-- her class wrote an opera with Opera by Children. It was about the American Revolution and I was super impressed by what her class and their teacher came up with. Lyrics, music, choreography, sets, props. It was AWESOME. And to top it all off she got the biggest solo! She loved every minute of the prep for this and she was excellent in it! So much fun. Don't worry grandparents, we bought the DVD!

And here's the long version:

The opera was written by the class.  They broke up in groups and wrote song ideas for the modern-day teacher/students part and for each different event of the American Revolution. Then as a class they polished each one.  Then the company Opera by Children came in and discussed different melodies and sounds and ideas for each song with the kids, got their input, and then used their words and musical ideas and turned it all into an OPERA!  It was about 15 minutes long.  The kids all got a CD to practice with.  Then they had tryouts for the teacher solo (like 6 short solos) and the students (1 short solo each) and Katelyn got the teacher part!!  I was super impressed!  And she did GREAT up there.  She was strong and confident, knew what she was doing, and sang on key and pretty much on rhythm!!  So great!  Thank you let's play music, Rococo, and good genes! :)  

Then the kids broke up into groups to create choreography for each song, then came together and polished their ideas as a class with their teacher's help.  Then they came up with the set and prop ideas, and spent a whole day painting!  So they really worked on this all year long, and it was Katelyn's favorite part of school!  This is Kate pretending to be French during the intro American Revolution song.

Seriously I was so impressed the whole time at how well-prepared they were.  There was no one backstage helping them, they all just knew what to do and where to go.  So cool.

protesting the tea tax.

Boston Tea party song.

the ship for the tea party.

crossing the Delaware- this was my favorite song!  You can't see it but the middle boat was a re-creation of the famous painting of Washington, they had a kid dressed up amazingly and he had a flag and everything. and the cloth for the water was cool!

capturing the Hessians.

Battle of Yorktown song.  This was Katelyn's group from the beginning, so she was pretty proud that she basically wrote this song herself!  

And a lot of the choreography for Yorktown was hers too!

It was awesome, awesome, awesome.

I brought her and her teacher flowers. :)  My amazing Kate!  Luckily the 5th and 6th grades have fine arts specialty classes too that she can be in and get to do 2 more operas!  

And I posted this on the last day of school in honor of Mrs. Fisher, her wonderful teacher:

I am in mourning today, because it was Katelyn's last day with the most amazing teacher in the world!!! I have a high standard when it comes to teachers, and Mrs. Fisher was a dream come true. Katelyn and I were THRILLED with the many fun things her class did in science and history week after week! I loved how creative and exciting all their assignments and lessons and projects were in every subject, they got to MAKE and DO so many cool things! And it wasn't just fun stuff, Mrs. Fisher challenged my 8th grade reading level daughter to become a better writer. She helped Katelyn catch up in math--she had very sub-par 3rd grade math teachers. And on top of all that she helped them write that amazing opera! This woman is phenomenal and I have loved trusting my Kate to her care every day this year. I will miss her!! I am so grateful for the caring and amazing people who brave the extremely challenging world of teaching! We will forever love Mrs. Celeste Fisher! She is seriously THE BEST EVER.