Unit Plan

Overview

Many students, through lack of familiarity, see opera as the ultimate alien genre, the epitome of the dreaded “High Art.” They believe that opera is all about helmeted Valkyries bellowing in German. However, opera was the popular entertainment of its day and its stars were the equivalent of today's Common, Faith Hill, Justin Timberlake, and Katherine McPhee. The 18th and 19th century audiences loved opera for the same reasons modern audiences love today's popular culture: They sought — and found — riveting plots, raucous satire, three-hankie tear-jerkers, and spectacular special effects.

This Unit, through cartoons and a writing assignment, will attempt to give some of that flavor to students.

• Subject: Humanities
• Grade Level: 11th grade
• Unit Topic: Who's Afraid of Opera?
• Integration with other content areas: Romantic Period
• Unit Length: five 75-minute lessons
• Number of Students: 18
• Number of Students of IEP/504 Plan: 2
• Number of Gifted Students: 1
• Number of English Language Learners: 0

Connections

• Big Idea: Structure in the Arts
• Understanding of the various structural components of the arts is critical to the development of other larger concepts in the arts. Structures that artists use include elements and principles of each art form, tools, media, and subject matter that impact artistic products, and specific styles and genre that provide a context for creating works. It is the artist's choice of these structural components in the creative process that results in a distinctively expressive work.
• Students make choices about how to use structural organizers to create meaningful works of their own. The more students understand, the greater their ability to produce, interpret, or critique artworks from other artists, cultures, and historical periods.
• Big Idea: Humanity in the Arts
• The arts reflect the beliefs, feelings, and ideals of those who create them. Experiencing the arts allows one to experience time, place, and/or personality. By experiencing the arts of various cultures, students can actually gain insight into the beliefs, feelings, and ideas of those cultures.
• Students also have the opportunity to experience how the arts can influence society through analysis of arts in their own lives and the arts of other cultures and historical periods.
• Studying the historical and cultural stylistic periods in the arts offers students an opportunity to understand the world past and present, and to learn to appreciate their own cultural heritage.
• Looking at the interrelationships of multiple arts disciplines across cultures and historical periods is the focus of humanities in the arts.
• Students have begun to explore the Romantic period in the arts.
• Students are familiar with the elements of music and the elements of drama.
• Students will build on their knowledge of opera when they learn about melodrama and the (Broadway) musical theater.

Standards

Academic Expectations

• 1.14: Students make sense of ideas and communicate ideas with music.
• 2.22: Students create works of art and make presentations to convey a point of view.
• 2.24: Students have knowledge of major works of art, music, and literature and appreciate creativity and the contributions of the arts and humanities.
• 2.25: In the products they make and the performances they present, students show that they understand how time, place, and society influence the arts and humanities such as languages, literature, and history.
• 2.26: Through the arts and humanities, students recognize that although people are different, they share some common experiences and attitudes.

Program of Studies

• AH-HS-SA-S-Mu4: Students will recognize, describe, and compare various styles of music [rondo, theme and variation, opera (overture, aria, recitative) movements of a classical symphony].
• AH-HS-HA-U-1: Students will understand that the arts are powerful tools for understanding human experiences both past and present.
• AH-HS-HA-S-Mu1: Students will describe, analyze and evaluate distinguishing characteristics of music representing a variety of world cultures and historical/style periods (European: Renaissance, Baroque, Neo-Classicism/"Classical," Romanticism, Impressionism/Post-Impressionism, Modern and Contemporary; American: Modern and Contemporary).
• AH-HS-HA-S-DT5: Students will use print and non-print sources to explore, describe, and interpret universal themes, characterization, and situations in dramas and characteristics of theater from different cultures or time periods.

Kentucky Core Content for Assessment

• AH-HS-1.1.1: Students will analyze or evaluate the use of elements of music in musical compositions.
• AH-HS-2.1.1: Students will analyze or evaluate how factors such as time, place and ideas are reflected in music.
• AH-HS-2.3.1: Students will analyze or evaluate how factors such as time, place and ideas are reflected in drama.

National Standards

• NA.9-12.6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music
• NA-M.9-12.9: Understanding music in relation to culture
• NL-ENG.K-12.4: Communication skills

Context

• Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of opera structure and vocabulary and connect that knowledge to popular culture
• Students have begun to explore the Romantic period in the arts.
• Students are familiar with the elements of music and the elements of drama.
• Students will build on their knowledge of opera when they learn about melodrama and the (Broadway) musical theater.

Essential Questions

• What is opera's influence on recent movies, television shows, and plays and in modern novels?
• What does our study of opera tell us about popular tastes in entertainment?
• What would a modern opera look like?

Assessments

Details on the culminating activity and assessments are here.

Resources, Media, and Technology

• Useful software and equipment:
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Windows Media Player
• Inspiration©
• Video player and/or DVD player
• CD player
• Colored pencils, paints, oil pastels, or some media
• Computer with Internet access and a projector
• Costumes and props (should be specified as soon as possible)
• Bugs Bunny Road Runner Movie in either VHS or DVD
• All the Great Operas in Ten Minutes, available only in VHS
• All the Great Operas in 10 Minutes worksheet
• Opera's Greatest Hits in either VHS or DVD
• Carmen Jones in either VHS or DVD
• Carmen: A Hip Hopera in either VHS or DVD
• History and Appreciation of the Virtual and Performing Arts, the soft-cover guide to Kentucky's Core Content for Assessment, prepared by Jefferson County Public Schools humanities teachers
• The A to Z of Classical Music, CD 2, or another recording of “Ride of the Valkyries”
• Create Your Own Opera assignment
• Pogue, David, and Scott Speck. (1997) Opera for Dummies. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide
• What's Opera, Doc? Analysis
• What's Opera, Doc? entry, Wikipedia
• Virtual Field Trip
• Virtual Field Trip passport, a collection of essay questions
• Process and Performance Reflection
• Copy of Evita, Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Les Misrèbles or some other modern opera
• Arizona Opera: Learn About Opera
• Lessons for Days 3 and 4 inspired by “Creating an Original Opera,” ArtsEdge: The Kentucky Center

Day 1

1. Step 1: Greet students entering the class with a selection of operatic pieces, beginning with the Overture to Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Throughout the unit, play as much opera — and as diverse a sampling — as possible. Play selections from works ranging from Porgy and Bess to Aìda.
2. Step 2: Introduce the idea of opera — to the expected groans. Explained that opera was just a play in which all the words were sung.
3. Step 3: Explain the idea of themes, or motifs, in music. Richard Wagner, for example used particular themes that recur when certain characters appear onstage in his operas. Note also how Wagner used mythologies and legends from his native Germany rather than relying on the Greek and Roman versions.
4. Step 4: Play the six-minute 1957 cartoon short, “What's Opera, Doc?,” from the movie The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Movie. Explained that Elmer Fudd represents the demigod Siegfried from Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). Bugs, when in drag, is the beautiful Valkyrie Brunhilde. The U.S. Library of Congress's declared this cartoon “culturally significant.” The cartoon features the following works:
1. Overture to The Flying Dutchman, also by Richard Wagner
2. “The Ride of the Valkyries” from The Valkyries
3. Siegfried's “Horn Call” from the Ring Cycle
4. Overture to Tannhauser, again by Wagner
5. Step 5: After distributing the score sheet for All the Great Operas in Ten Minutes, explain to students that they will be expected to keep track of how many people are killed in each opera that is summarized in the video. (The video itself helps them keep track.)
6. Step 6: Play the hilarious video All the Great Operas in Ten Minutes. Students keep track of how many mortals die. A correct count for the gods counts as extra credit.
7. Step 7: Explain that operas continue to this day, sometimes with exactly the same plot. The hit Broadway musical Rent is just an update on La Bohème, the 19th century opera by Giacomo Puccini. Illustrate this point by playing three versions of the same scene in Carmen:
1. The original version by Puccini; in this scene, Carmen is first introduced to Don José as she sings about how fickle love is in “La Habanera.” He doesn't take the hint. In the original version, Carmen is a cigarette girl, Don José is a Spanish soldier, and the lover who lures her away is a toreador.
2. The same scene in Oscar Hammerstein's updated version, Carmen Jones, released in 1954. This time the setting is the American South during World War II, Carmen is a factory worker in a munitions plant of some kind, the Don José character is a soldier in the U.S. Army (renamed "Joe" in this Americanized version), and the lover is now a prize fighter.
3. The same scene yet again in the updated version Carmen: A Hip Hopera, a TV version which screened for the first time in 2001. Now Carmen (played by Beyoncé Knowles) is a wannabe actress, and Joe (Mehki Phifer) is a policeman.
8. Step 8: End by playing some additional selections from well-known operas. Suggestions include The Magic Flute, Rigoletto, and, of course, Porgy and Bess.

Day 2

1. Step 1: Again greet students entering the class with a selection of operatic pieces.
2. Step 2: Students will read “Music — Romantic Time Period,” pages 114–15 in History and Appreciation of the Virtual and Performing Arts, which includes Richard Wagner.
3. Step 3: Students will be advised that they will be writing their very own opera. The opera can take the form of a synopsis (only individuals can choose this option), a scene that is performed, a movie, or a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. All students will have to answer the vocabulary questions and compare their own lives to an opera, regardless of what they choose. They will have time on Day 3 and Day 4 to work on their opera; however, they have the option to get their Create Your Own Opera assignment now, if they like.
4. Step 4: Students will be divided into groups of two for their Virtual Field Trip.
1. Each pair will receive a copy of the Virtual Field Trip passport, a collection of essay questions for analyzing this four-stop exercise.
2. The class will then head to the computer lab (or open up their laptops, if available) and embark on the Virtual Field Trip. They will then answer the essay questions of their Virtual Field Trip passport.
5. Step 5: After the students return, the instructor will bring up PBS's Great Performances opera site on the projector, where students will get a quickie introduction to opera and get to hear what the various voices the (e.g., bass, tenor, soprano) sound like at the site's Opera Basics section.
6. Step 6: Students will again be reminded that they will be writing their own opera next time we meet. They will end the block watching a few minutes of Evita, Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Les Misrèbles or some other modern opera.

Day 3

1. Step 1: Again greet students entering the class with a selection of operatic pieces. Several selections play during the 75-minute block as the students work on their assignments.
2. Step 2: Students who do not already have one receive their Create Your Own Opera assignment . Operas can be set in a time period — be it now, 100 years ago, or in the year 2410 — and in any place. The opera can be tragic like Otello, Romeo and Juliet, or Rigoletto. It can have a happy ending like The Marriage of Figaro, The Elixir of Love, or The Merry Wives of Windsor. Then there are romantic operas like La Bohème and The Magic Flute. There operas about cowboys, operas about Chinese emperors, and operas about gangsters. One rule only: Be creative!
3. Step 3: Students who wish to work in pairs or groups of three on an operatic scene or on a 10-minute Microsoft PowerPoint presentation inform the instructor at this point. Students work for the entirety of the block on creating their own opera.
4. Step 4: The instructor works with the two students with IEPs and several others on preparing a writing web in Inspiration©.
Students have the option of further researching existing operas at Synopses from the New York City Opera company, Stories of the Operas from the Metropolitan Opera company, or Synopses of Operas from Naxos, the premier recording label for classical music.

Day 4

1. Step 1: Again greet students entering the class with a selection of operatic pieces.
2. Step 2: Students continue working on their assignments for the first 30 minutes.
3. Step 3: Students who are doing their presentations, movies and/or performances do so after the first 30 minutes. Teacher observes as many as time permits.
4. Step 4: All written opera assignments are due by the end of the day.

Day 5

1. Step 1: Again greet students entering the class with a selection of operatic pieces.
2. Step 2: Students finish doing their presentations (whether PowerPoint or movie) and performances.
3. Step 3: Students are given and complete Process and Performance Reflection.