Opera is cool at Beverly Farms Elementary School.
"We did everything. We made posters, called the media — it's really cool, but a lot of hard work," said Maryanna Heilman, one of the 26 fifth-graders who showcased their original opera, "Fossilized Friendship," on May 20 and 22 at Beverly Farms.
The 26 students were responsible for the entire production from start to finish.
"Everything comes from them, the theme, the music, everything," said Valia Vassila, the music director for the production and opera teacher who assisted the students on the production.
Each of the 26 children was assigned a specific task important to the opera company. In addition to writing, composing and performing the show, the students assumed roles as stage managers, costume designers and carpenters.
"These kids will never say, 'Opera yuck,' but they might say, Opera is hard work."
ALL 26 students collaborated to develop the theme for the production, which focused on rumors, secrets and friendship. Once the theme was decided, the class developed the characters and then handed over the writing work to their classmates Kara Bradley and Michelle Eglovitch.
"I thought the writing was going to be easy," said Kara, "but I never thought I was going to have to write from other people's ideas."
Vassila emphasized that the children learned to work as a team and realized by the end of the project that they were all equally important.
"We never would have finished if we didn't learn to work together," said Shiori Kawasaki, the assistant stage manager for the show. "We learned a lot of responsibility."
"FOSSILIZED FRIENDSHIP" is the fourth original opera created by fifth-grade students at Beverly Farms Elementary School. The program started four years ago and is part of the Creating Original Opera program of the Metropolitan Opera Guild Education Program in New York City. It is an after-school activity supported by grants from Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and partners, GE Global Exchange Services and The Washington Opera.
According to many parents, the children were very enthusiastic and worked well beyond the three hours a week of class time, meeting on weekends, during lunch, and before school.
"It has been an interesting process," said Claudia Jarquin, parent of Mateo Jarquin, who played "Bravely" in the opera. "They learned about opera and how to work together, but most importantly they learned discipline and responsibility."
The students raised $763 in the process of presenting their opera, and will donate that money to school children who were victims of the LaPlata tornado earlier in May. GE Global Exchange will match their donation with an additional $763, all of which will be presented to James Richmond, Charles County superintendent on May 29.
A third performance is scheduled for May 29 at the offices of opera benefactor GE Global Exchange Services in Gaithersburg.