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NEWS
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Download the Interview
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◊ "Opera for Kids" - Carolina
Morning News
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◊ American Profile Magazine "Giving
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Opera for kids
HARDEEVILLE: Traveling production takes Mozart to Jasper County.
Erinn McGuire
Carolina Morning News
Ah, young love.
That was the topic that captured about 800 young minds at West
Hardeeville School last week when a trio of singers from Opera for
Kids, a performing group out of Chapin, transformed the school's
gymnasium into a class act.
Singing filled the school's hallways as "Bastien and Bastienne" came
to life.
The story about two young sweethearts, written by a 12-year-old
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is one of five opera's geared toward
younger audiences and put on by FBN Productions.
Such performances are important to young minds, said Ellen Douglas
Schlaefer, general director of FBN Productions.
"There's a special commitment between audience and performers," she
said. "There is a fear that such connections are being lost with the
increase of electronic media. The goal for us is for every child in
South Carolina to hear a live performance."
Opera is the one medium that touches all the human conditions, she
said.
"Whether as a resource for the classroom teacher or as an
opportunity to expand students' horizons, opera can be informative,
entertaining and inspirational and just plain fun," she said.
This is the fourth time since 1997 FBN Productions has performed for
Jasper County students, thanks to financial support from the
Cultural Council of Jasper County.
"The cultural council is trying to bring cultural activity to a
county that doesn't have access," said Bob Huff, a member of the
Cultural Council of Jasper County and computer technology teacher at
West Hardeeville School.
"The county lacks a performing arts center, and usually in order to
see a cultural event, it involves going to Savannah, Charleston,
Atlanta and sometimes Hilton Head or Beaufort, but always involves a
trip. We're trying to expose the children to the arts as they exist
today. Bringing the arts into the school allows for more children to
experience the arts than if we had to bus them."
And experience a varying degree of emotions is what many of the
younger children, most of whom sat closet to the performers, did.
Laughter erupted at the slapstick antics of "Bastien and Bastienne."
At least one older student, Demetria Bright, 12, said she liked the
singers because a person can "keep in mind that maybe (you) could be
an opera singer. Their singing is unique and I like their costumes."
The seventh-grader said she watched a rendition of "Goldilocks" by
the same group as a younger student.
"I had heard of (opera) before, but I hadn't listened to it," she
said.
Reporter Erinn McGuire can be reached at
erinn.mcguire@lowcountrynow.com
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