OPERA IOWA

OPERA IOWA Presented by The Coons Foundation

EACH YEAR, Des Moines Metro Opera cultivates the next generation of musicians and music lovers through programs like OPERA Iowa, offering public performances, workshops, and access to cultural experiences for youth in both urban and rural schools across the state. This year, we were pleased to return to an in-person model following a fully virtual OPERA Iowa season in 2021.

The 2022 OPERA Iowa troupe members arrived in Indianola at the end of January to prepare for the educational tour with rehearsals, coachings, tech work and more. The seven-member troupe began their tour on March 20 and crisscrossed the state of Iowa throughout the spring, performing the children’s opera Rusalka: The Littlest Mermaid, holding educational workshops, and performing arias concerts in schools and communities across the state.

From March 20 to May 3, the troupe held 45 performances and 125 workshops at 66 schools, including 31 residencies (locations where artists spent extended periods in the community they were visiting). OPERA Iowa educational activities begin with training materials that support teachers as they prepare for the troupe’s time at the school, continue with classroom workshops conducted by the troupe, and culminate with a live performance of the year’s opera. After their performances, teachers receive follow-up activities to enhance student learning and solidify concepts introduced during the troupe’s workshops. As Alice Kenel, a music teacher at Holy Trinity Elementary School in Des Moines shared, “We still talk about the concepts we learned about in this unit. I think it has made a lasting impression with my students.”

Offering young people opportunities to experience and interact with live performance is vital to the future of the arts and is an important part of DMMO’s mission. For many schools, OPERA Iowa’s visit represents the only live professional arts performance their students experienced this year. This year, students in school districts as small as Lynnville-Sully, with 40 students in a graduating class, and as large as Des Moines Public Schools, with over 2,500 students in a graduating class, got to experience the joy and exhilaration of live performance during OPERA Iowa’s visit to their school, many for the first time. Franchesca Richter, the music teacher at Lynnville-Sully Elementary School, remarked that her students “absolutely loved” the OPERA Iowa visit. “Most of my students would never experience opera on their own. This opened their eyes to a whole world of live performance, and the performers made opera something they could relate and connect to.”

In total, almost 12,000 students under the guidance of around 450 music teachers benefited from the program in 2022. In addition to the in-person tour, 34 teachers in five states and

Australia utilized the free OPERA Iowa Virtual Curriculum to introduce their students to professional opera through carefully crafted video lectures, worksheets and a recording of the fully staged opera.

In addition to providing critical exposure to the performing arts for school-aged children, the OPERA Iowa program also plays in an important role in helping DMMO fulfill its commitment to developing the next generation of singers. Over the course of their residency with DMMO, the OPERA Iowa Troupe gains valuable experience advocating for the arts and live performance as well as developing their skills as performers and music educators.

For the singers, though, their experience with OPERA Iowa all comes back to the kids. Soprano Gabrielle Clutter, who sang Rusalka in Rusalka: The Littlest Mermaid, reflected on her time with OPERA Iowa, sharing, “OPERA Iowa has been a magical experience… I have never heard a more involved audience— screaming, cheering and celebrating the characters. This experience has reminded me that creating the magic, memories, and music for these schools is why I love opera!” Alyssa Barnes, a soprano who sang the roles of Rusalka’s and the Prince’s sisters, agrees. “Singing with OPERA Iowa reminded me what we give to our audiences. The kids have such huge reactions to the show—laugher, frustration, anger. It’s incredibly gratifying to give so much energy and then to receive their reactions in return.”

Next year’s troupe will continue the proud tradition of OPERA Iowa with performances of the beloved classic Sid the Serpent Who Wanted to Sing and a new adaptation of Beauty and the Beast for school and community audiences all around the Midwest. As Iowa’s largest and most expansive program in arts education and one of the most innovative programs of its kind, OPERA Iowa has introduced live performance to over one million people across its 36-year history. That’s a lot of future music-lovers!

2022 OPERA Iowa Troupe: (left to right) Nicholas Mayhugh, Alyssa Barnes, Ariana Warren, Robert Gerold, Nate Stone; (seated) David Mamedov, Gabrielle Clutter This year, the troupe returned to school classrooms for the workshops which have been a hallmark of the OPERA Iowa program from its inception!