Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 28, 1992                   TAG: 9203280050
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: TANIA BOARDMAN
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

OPERA HAS SEVERAL LESSONS FOR CHILDREN, INSTRUCTOR SAYS

Radford University's music department is doing Seymour Barab's operatic version of the fairy tale for children at the university and at five New River Valley schools, starting Monday.

"Opera has a stigma for being only for the educated and elite," Elizabeth Curtis, part-time music instructor at the university, said. "We want to dispel that stigma."

John Witherspoon, a Radford University junior social-work major from Big Stone Gap, who plays the Big Bad Wolf and the Woodsman said, "We need more music in our school systems. The arts give a person the opportunity to express their feelings and a chance to grow."

The opera will be presented at McHarg Elementary in Radford, Bethel Elementary, Riner Elementary, Belview Elementary and Christiansburg Primary schools in Montgomery County, and at Riverlawn Elementary in Pulaski County.

A free public performance will be given at Radford University's Preston Auditorium Tuesday at 4 p.m. Elementary school children were chosen as an audience because they are open to different types of music, Curtis said.

"Beyond that age, they get cynical," she said.

"Children like anything you play for them since they don't have any biases of what is cool and not cool, yet," Angela Connor-Gosney, piano accompanist, said.

The cast also includes Radford University students Julie Woodstock, a senior music major from Fort Detrick, Md., as the mother and the grandmother and Penny Shumate, a senior speech major from Waynesboro, as Little Red Riding Hood.

All of the cast members are experienced singers who train with Curtis.

The fairy tale itself already includes lessons for children, such as obeying parents and not talking to or taking candy from strangers.

But Curtis has other lessons she would like the children to learn. Along with the exposure to opera, Curtis would like the children to learn that wolves actually are not as vicious as they are often portrayed in children's stories.

Curtis, a vegetarian who believes in animal rights, said it is important that children understand that wolves do not hunt humans and that it is actually the other way around.

As part of the program, information about wolves will be provided for the children.

The play is sponsored by the Council for Community Enrichment, the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the Radford University Community Arts School.