State Standards

Kansas

  • Music
    • 6I21

Missouri

  • (No correlating standards)

Click here to view
code descriptions.

Print This Lesson:
(opens a new window)

Web Version

PDF Version

Lesson 12: Music of the Opera

Background

Students who are attending the opera will benefit from some familiarity with the major themes or pieces of music they will hear. This lesson focuses on two musical selections that will prepare students for their visit. The focus of this lesson is on the emotions elicited by listening to music from the opera and putting this music into the context of the action taking place.

Objectives

Upon completion of the lesson, students will be able to:

  1. Identify two musical selections from the opera;
  2. Identify the emotions elicited by the composer of these two selections.

Materials

Internet access with speaker capabilities or student access to computers

Musical excerpts from the opera from http://kcopera.org/OurSeason/johnbrown.html. Scroll down to bottom of the page for a list of musical selections.

John Brown Libretto

Time

1 class period prior to viewing the opera

Procedure

  1. Ask students to think about the music they enjoy. Ask them to think of a song that is upbeat or that makes them happy. Then have them describe the music - the tempo, major or minor key, the story it tells, or other characteristics they want to share.

    Then ask them to do the same with music that makes them pensive or sad. Have them discuss how the characteristics of music can promote feelings or put the listener in a certain mood.

  2. Tell students that they will listen to two audio clips of music from the opera, John Brown. At the beginning of Act II, Scene I, a slave that John Brown had helped escape sings "Daniel." (It is pronounced "Dan-u-el" in the piece. (Alert students to listen for this pronunciation.)

    Prior to any explanation of the clip, play "Daniel." (You can retrieve from www.kcopera.org. Click on "Our Season", then click on "John Brown", scroll down to bottom for list of musical selections.) Ask the students what feeling or emotion they felt as they listened to the music. Have them explain what gave them this feeling. (This is a hymn of rejoicing at having been freed.) Accept all of the student's contributions. Do not tell them what the song is about.

  3. Pass out the words to the musical selection from the libretto. Have students listen to it again as they follow along with the words. Ask them if the words matched the feelings they got when listening to the music. Have them explain their answers.

    Have them evaluate if they think the words and music match. Ask students if the words and music elicit the same feelings together as when experienced separately.

  4. Do the same activity with another clip from the opera, "The Songs of the Slave" found at the same location . These words can also be found in Act II, Scene I of the libretto.

  5. Replay these two clips if you have time prior to students' viewing of the opera. Before they attend the opera, alert them to notice within the opera what was occurring just before and just after these two selections. Ask them to think about how these selections fit the mood of the scene in these two places in which they occur in Act I.

  6. Debrief when students return to the classroom.

Extension

More advanced music students can take part of the libretto that they find interesting and compose music to reflect the mood and intent of the scene.

Younger students can continue this lesson while listening to musical selections with which they are familiar and analyzing them for the feelings elicited and the match between the words and the music.

Essay Contest

Encourage your students to participate in the Lyric Opera of Kansas City Essay Contest. You can find more about it by visiting www.kcopera.org/About/johnbrowneducation/essay.

Lesson created by Martha A. Henry and Keith S. Murray, M.A. Henry Consulting, LLC.