Reflection on discussion with Kiya

This week's classes have been filled with wonderful discussion. It all started with the visit from Kiya to discuss her opera Lying to the Sea Gypsy. A wonderful children's opera, it made me think about works that are suitable as workshop pieces with children. I realized that, in the operatic realm, I couldn't think of anything.

This made me consider Missoula Children's Theater, a touring company based out of Missoula, Montana, that a good friend of mine works for. For the past year, she has been touring from town to town, first in the Texas area and then out on the west coast. The company spends about a week in any given location, where they work with a youth cast and coach them in a production of a certain show. I believe that for the entire year she has been workshoping a version of Jack and the Beanstalk. It seems like such a great way to get young students involved in theatrical productions with a professional cast, and it also works well as a venue for young musical theater performers to begin to get some experience.

What about a similar organization for opera? If we could get composers such as Kiya to write more works like Lying to the Sea Gypsy, it would be a great way to get middle school and high school students involved in opera in a supervised, safe way. I believe it would be much more effective than watching high school sopranos sing "Caro nome" or tenors attempt to survive "Il mio tesoro." It seems to me that this is an instance where the merging styles of musical theater and opera can benefit from looking at things other than the musical aspects. Opera can benefit from adopting a similar format of performing and outreach, I believe, to this musical theater tradition. Composers that understand the need of young singers, like Kiya, are essential to this idea, and it's very exciting to see her work and to imagine what may be in the future.