Sounds of Learning

Welcome to Opera-Online! Welcome students and teachers to Opera Online! This week we'll concentrate on Ravel's magical L'enfant et les sortilèges . Youtube Clip of the Week One of the most brilliant moments in the opera is when Fire bursts out of the fireplace to taunt the Child. This clip features famous French coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay singing the role of Fire. This production is more similar to the Opera Company's production. Here the singer represents the "spirit" of fire rather than actually looking like fire. Eventually the Child manages to quench the fire by smothering it in a blanket. Slowly and reluctantly the "fire" finally goes out. You'll see a black screen for about the first 20 seconds of this clip and there is no audio during the first 39 seconds. Web Site of the Week In 2004 a filmaker from Finland made a fascinating film of L'enfant et les sortilèges called The Bewitched Child . It played at several film festival...

Welcome to Opera-Online! Welcome students and teachers for this edition of Opera Online! This week we start looking at our next production, the comedic double bill of Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. The first thing I want to talk about this week is the pronunciation of both of these visually intimidating titles. Both the vowels in "L'en" and "fant" of L'enfant sounds a bit like the "aw" sound in the English word lawn, but without the "n" at the end, like "law faw ". " Et " sounds like ay, " les " sounds like "lay". The last syllable of sortilèges sounds sort of like the English word ledge, but replace the "d" with a soft g sound like in the word mirage: sore-tee-LEHZH. The title is pronounced: law-FAW ay lay sore-tee-LEHZH. Gianni Schicchi is much easier. Gianni sounds just like the name Johnny and Schicchi is just like combining the wo...

Welcome to Opera-Online! About 1900 people came to the final dress rehearsal of Turandot last Wednesday, over half of them through the Sounds of Learning program. Over 100 students from across the area have shared their thoughts on the opera on our Sounds of Learning blog. Teacher Patrizia Clerico from Bishop Shanahan High School used the Turandot and 3s lesson on the teacher CD-Rom. She challenged her students to find references to the number 3 during Turandot. This is their list of observations: 1. ministers 2. servants of the ministers 3. henchmen of the executioner 4. riddles 5. correct answers 6. repetitions of "hope", "blood", and "Turandot" by wise men when Calaf answers the riddles 7. 3 sets of 3 heads on stakes 8. times that Turandot walks up and down stairs while stating riddles 9. female suitors in each of the four groupings 10. chests of riches 11. sets of two people carrying the chests 12. dragon hands on set 13. times that the people say ...

Sounds of Learning TM Student Dress Rehearsal Giacomo Puccini's Turandot Wednesday, February 15, 2009 6:15 p.m. Students in the Opera Company of Philadelphia's Sounds of Learning TM program saw the final dress rehearsal of Puccini's brilliant fairytale opera, Turandot , on Wednesday, February 15th. The opera is filled with thrilling arias, dramatic scenes, and powerful choruses, including the famous aria Nessun Dorma . The ice princess Turandot requires all suitors to pass a test of three riddles. If they are unsuccessful, they forfeit their lives. Now that you've studied the opera and seen it, what were your impressions? Tell us what you think and post your reviews here! Did you like the opera? Which was your favorite character? Did you like the sets? Please include your first name, school and grade in your post. Click here if you want to learn more about Puccini, Turandot , singers in the production, China and more. JOIN OUR OPERA EMAIL LIST! Email education@operaph...

Welcome to Opera-Online! Just a few days left until the Sounds of Learning presentation of Puccini's Turandot . The cast has some incredibly important rehearsals over the next few days including the Sitzprobe (pronounced ZITS-probe), when the singers finally get to sing all the way through the score with the orchestra, and two orchestra dress rehearsals where the entire opera will be run from start to finish as if it were a performance. Youtube Clip of the Week We have two clips this week. First we'll feature a performance of Liù's final moments onstage. We'll see a performance of her back-to-back arias "Tanto amore segreto" and "Tu che di gel cei cinta" which can be found on page 29 and 30 of the student workbook. This is the last scene in the opera that Puccini completed before his untimely death from throat cancer. This performance is from Vienna and features Italian soprano Katia Ricciarelli as Liù with Eva Marton as Turandot and José Carreras ...

Welcome to Opera- Online! The opening night of Turandot is just two weeks away! The Opera Company artists have been hard at work in rehearsals with the director and conductor, in costume fittings, and working with our music coaches to make sure that Turandot will be an amazing production. To check out what's going on behind the scenes of this production visit our web site and click on the Rehearsal Photos link to see photos from the rigorous rehearsals. Youtube Clip of the Week Last week we looked at Calaf's famous aria "Nessun dorma." This week's clip of the week features the dramatic riddle scene in which Turandot challenges Calaf, the Unknown Prince, to answer her three enigmas! If he doesn't answer the three questions, his life will be in grave danger. How will he do? This clip features Welsh soprano Dame Gwyneth Jones as Turandot and Italian tenor Franco Bonisolli as Calaf. This clip may take a little while to load onto your computer. If it stops ...