Beloit Students perform with Opera for the Young Professionals

A chorus of sixteen 3rd grade students, 5-6 from each of Beloit’s Elementary Schools from across the district will appear onstage, performing right alongside Opera for The Young’s professional artists. The performance will be a musical adaptation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. To accommodate all the students, there will be two performances.

About Opera for the Young

Opera for the Young (OFtY) brings live, professional opera to elementary school audiences. All productions are fully staged, sung in English and adapted especially for children. Students appear onstage in chorus and cameo roles; they also help design certain elements of the production’s sets and costumes. OFtY audiences become acquainted with the original scores of master composers, set in contexts relevant to kids’ 21st century lives. (For example, OFtY’s Barber of Seville is updated to the 1950s; The Elixir of Love is set in the old west. OFtY’s repertoire also includes Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, Dvorak’s Rusalka, A Mermaid’s Tale and a work based on the masterpieces of Offenbach, Gluck and Monteverdi entitled, Orpheus Returns.) Opera for the Young annually presents 200 performances, reaching 80,000 children every school year throughout Wisconsin, northern Illinois, Indiana and eastern Minnesota.

About The Magic Flute.

A booming voice intones “Once upon a time, in a solar system light years away, there was a planet that suffered a disastrous quake…” and audience members are transported to outer space! OFtY’s adaptation of this classic opera features a Flying (inner) Tube, a Satellite (golf) Umbrella and a couple of 3-headed characters. Students sing the roles of the wise Sarastro and his Alien Council of Wisdom who help propel the plot to its successful conclusion.

About OFtY’s professional artists.

Every OFtY production features four professional singers and one pianist. Professional cast members are selected after competitive auditions held each spring in Chicago and Madison. All professional roles are triple cast. Recent cast members have included a Grammy award winner, Metropolitan Opera national audition winners, several Met regional winners, artists with doctorates, many with masters degrees, choristers from the Lyric Opera of Chicago and members of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. All are conservatory graduates and active recitalists.

Further information on Opera for the Young visit their website.

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