When you think about the opera, the image that probably comes to mind is one of formally dressed guests watching women in Brunhilde costumes belting their hearts out in Italian.
That impression, seared into the minds of so many unfamiliar with opera, makes the idea of taking a child to see an opera sound ludicrous.
But opera for children is more popular than ever, with opera companies putting on kid-friendly productions and working with community organizations dedicated to bringing opera to young audiences.
And these aren’t dramatic productions of shows like “La bohème” or “Don Giovanni.” While many children’s opera productions incorporate songs from these legendary productions, they are often comedic takes on popular fairy tales and original stories with themes that children can understand.
“Kids love opera; it’s adults that have hesitations about it,” says Courtney Kalbacker, director of education at Opera Baltimore. “They don’t have any of the preconceptions people often have about the art form. So, when they come in and see an awesome musical story on stage that speaks to them and is a lot of fun, with costumes and silliness, of course they’re going to love it.”
Children’s opera is a relatively new undertaking for Opera Baltimore. The company only started adding shows aimed at children to its lineup a few years ago, after a rebrand from Baltimore Concert Opera.
To put one of these children’s operas, there are a few key differences to note between a children’s opera and the more formal performances that inform the popular impression of the art form.
Children’s operas are sung entirely in English, so that they’re easier to understand. These performances can take place anywhere, from traditional theaters and performing arts centers to the Enoch Pratt Free Library, which often hosts children’s opera programs.
And these operas often incorporate elements like pre-show story times to keep a child audience engaged and excited before the show begins.
Opera Baltimore brings the art to students through its school assembly program, “What is Opera? A Team!” The presentation details the combination of different artistic disciplines that go into opera, including music, dance and visual art, and how imagination, teamwork and courage come together when creating an opera.
In addition to its own educational programs, Opera Baltimore also works with Towson University’s Opera Outreach Ensemble (OOE), a student-led organization of music education majors who perform for young audiences.
OOE started as a small program that would travel to schools to put on performances, but now partners with Opera Baltimore and Annapolis Opera to do larger shows.
Opera Baltimore’s latest show for children, the Little Red Riding Hood -inspired “Little Red’s Most Unusual Day,” is performed by a cast of OOE members and features classical opera melodies incorporated into a silly twist on the classic fairy tale.
“We have a lot of music education majors at Towson, and [our music education program] is one of the things we’re really known for,” explains Phillip Collister, OOE’s founding director, and a professor of voice at Towson’s Department of Music. “I had a very positive experience myself doing children’s opera when I was in college, so I wanted to have a chance for those students to have a chance, before they actually went out to teach music to kids, to be in front of students and interact with kids of all ages.”
Children’s opera has a lot of similarities to children’s musical theater, but they’re still distinct art forms. Opera can often be more intense than a musical and is usually performed without microphones, and utilizes a much wider vocal range.
“Children, especially, find opera to be interesting because it’s not normal for people to sing like that, and to act and tell stories like that,” Collister says. “Kids are used to musical theater, but opera is different and features much bigger voices.”
This more dramatic approach helps a child audience empathize with the drama unfolding onstage.
“It’s a really great way to exercise kids’ empathy muscles,” Kalbacker adds. “They immediately feel that emotion. All kinds of theater does that, but in particular, opera has a sort of key to the heart with how it incorporates the unfiltered human voice.”
As with many other art forms, exposing children to opera at a young age comes with its own set of benefits. It helps to instill in them an appreciation of the arts and can help inspire them to pursue creative endeavors.
And these shows being aimed at children does not mean their themes are watered down to be more palatable and simple, either. Kalbacker notes that among the large repertoire of opera productions for children that companies like Opera Baltimore perform, many of these shows are based around concepts that are relevant to children but can help broaden their perspective on certain social or societal issues.
These can range from common childhood experiences like bullying to larger concepts like climate change and immigration.
In Opera Baltimore’s case, many of the company’s senior leaders are moms, who use their own parenting experiences to inform the productions they put on.
“Being parents helps us design the opera experience to be something that we know children will want to engage in,” Kalbacker says. “Our own kids are our favorite beta testers. My daughter still sings the songs from our last children’s opera and loves to share the experience with her friends.”
