
DATE: Friday, November 14, 1997             TAG: 9711140657

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   73 lines

OPERA IS A TOTAL ART EXPERIENCE FOR CREATIVE FOURTH-GRADERS

Wagner and Puccini might have been impressed if they'd wandered into the cafeteria at Old Donation Center Thursday. It's not every day that you happen upon a group of fourth-graders performing their own opera.

On this morning, the tale of intrigue revolved around royalty and dragons, wizards and knights. And the libretto ran from magic spells to the evening's meal.

The King and Queen were overjoyed to see the Prince and Princess and all the peasants very happy. Oh, what a great dinner this is! With chicken and rice and just about everything nice.

The students, participants in ODC's program for the intellectually gifted, are completing a six-week unit on opera as part of the broader study of time and space.

At a time when there is a renewed focus in education on the three R's, some have worried that the arts will be lost in the mix. Efforts like this not only keep the arts alive, but offer a new and stimulating outlet to some of the city's brightest children, said Philippa Lipscomb, an Old Donation teacher.

Besides attending a version of the ``Phantom of the Opera'' for kids, the young people also did research on opera and visited with guest speakers. Then, everything they'd learned was pulled together as they wrote and starred in their own opera, complete with costumes, props and scenery they'd made themselves. Only the melody to the music was borrowed from Andrew Lloyd Webber.

``It takes a lot of time and work, and it would have taken even more to compose a real opera,'' said 9-year-old Siri Kalburgi. ``We only did a small one.''

Actually, the fourth-graders did five small ones. Because students attend their home schools four days per week and ODC one, teachers Judith Hurwitz, Philippa Lipscomb, and Angel Massey had each day's fourth-graders collaborate on a performance. They worked together on the overture and finale, but each class wrote a separate act for its opera.

For example, Thursday's opera was set in a castle during medieval times while Monday's will be set in an underwater city. Today's version is set in a 1970s New York City Opera House which is being rented out to a rock 'n roll band, to the chagrin of the resident phantom.

How she yearns for the opera and all its sweet sounds, but rock 'n' roll is here to stay.

All the classes were asked to keep a phantom character in their opus. And the words were read rather than sung. Beyond that, the only limit was their creativity.

``You have to have fun or it doesn't work,'' advised 9-year-old Chase Hill. ``Lots of people had to cooperate and work together and pitch in.''

In the spirit of cooperation, Chase saw himself elevated to a starring role unexpectedly as he became the hero of his day's opera.

``I was actually supposed to be a knight, but the other prince had to go to Disney World,'' he explained.

Lipscomb said opera is a total art experience for the children. Going through the creative process calls on skills from research and critical thinking to technology and communication, she said. And it teaches them things they might otherwise be unfamiliar with.

Lipscomb said one student told her early on in the unit that she didn't like ``plays with music.'' Now, after working with her classmates to create their own opera, she's singing a different tune.

``She's changed her mind entirely,'' Lipscomb said. ILLUSTRATION: Fourth-graders at the Old Donation Center in Virginia

Beach hold their masks in place during their opera performance on

Thursday. The students wrote the text of the opera, and made the

costumes.

STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot

Dressed in colorful costumes, students at the Old Donation Center in

Virginia Beach perform an opera. The costumes act as a creative

screen allowing expression to come only from body form and movement.