More Than An Overture: A program teaching music by creating,

writing, producing and performing ten-minute opera

Dr Steven Capaldo, University of Wollongong

Dr Lotte Latukefu, University of Wollongong

Abstract

The project More Than An Overture enabled university academics, an established and

respected Australian music composer and an emerging artist to teach pre-service generalist

primary education and creative arts (performance) students at the University of Wollongong

how to create and produce children's operas. The university students, academics and artists

then worked with local primary school students and their teachers in creating children's operas

that culminated in a performance for the school and their community. This paper explores the

creation of the project, the motivations behind its development and the results from the

project.

Keywords (Max 6 words):

Primary education, opera, community project

Introduction

The project More Than An Overture saw university academics, pre-service generalist primary

teachers, creative arts performance majors, a composer, an emerging professional repetiteur,

primary school teachers and primary students all engage in creating, developing, producing

and performing ten-minute operas. Funded from the ArtsNSW Creative Education Partnership

program, the project ran in two stages over one university semester and two school terms at

the University of Wollongong and Keiraville Public School in 2011.

Music in NSW Primary Schools

There has been a significant amount of research into primary music education that provides

strong evidence about the genuine benefits to teaching music to students in the primary school

context (Temmerman, 2008; Clarke & Rowley, 2008; Davidson, 2007; Kokotsaki & Hallam,

2011). Even though it is mandatory for generalist teachers to teach music in NSW primary

schools, research into the area highlights a number of concerns regarding the teaching of

music in primary schools by generalist primary teachers including:

• a high level of teacher anxiety (Auh, 2007; Hennessey, 2000)

• insufficient time given to music in the curriculum (Barton, 2005; Temmerman, 2005)

• low levels of confidence and knowledge to teach music (Temmerman, 2005; Biasuitti,

2010; Russell-Bowie, 2009)

• a lack of understanding about the benefits of music and teaching music (Temmerman,

2006; Auh, 2007)

Consequently, primary school students often receive limited music learning experiences. This

suggests that a gap exists between the syllabus requirements, student outcomes and what pre-

service and in-service teachers know and feel confident to teach (Temmerman, 2005 & 2006;

Southcott, 2004; Garvis, 2009; Russell-Bowie, 1993).

The project aimed to provide opportunities for:

• Pre-service generalist primary teachers to gain some confidence, skills and knowledge in

teaching, composing and performing music;

• In-service generalist primary teachers to observe and participate in the project increasing

their confidence, skills and knowledge in music teaching;

• Primary school students to strengthen their music skills and knowledge, level of engagement

and in-class participation.

Pre-service generalist primary teacher focus

Research shows that giving pre-service teachers realistic in-school experiences learning how to

teach the content while they are learning the content provides a greater depth of pedagogical

content knowledge and teaching confidence (Ballantyne, 2006 & 2007; Biasutti, 2010; de

Vries, 2007; Jeanneret, 1994; Russell-Bowie, 2007; Hennessy, 2000). The project intended to

provide pre-service generalist primary teachers with an opportunity to work with music students

from the Faculty of Creative Arts to create, write, produce and perform in their own operas to

help develop their personal music skills and knowledge. In doing so, it was hoped that these

experiences would further deepen and extend the pre-service teachers’ musical abilities and

confidence, thereby enabling them to develop an instructional approach to teach opera to

children.

In-service generalist primary teacher focus

Classroom music instruction in primary schools is limited to the skills, knowledge and

confidence of the generalist teacher. With an understanding of the issues concerning music

education in this context, we asked the school’s Stage 3 class teachers to participate in the

project with the intention of providing them with professional learning to increase their

confidence, knowledge and skills.

Primary School Student Focus

To meet the Stage 1-3 outcomes required by the BOS NSW Creative Arts (Music) syllabus,

primary music education needs a strong focus in composing, performing and listening in

classroom learning experiences. We aimed to provide a deep, rich and engaging music

experience to students in Stage 3 that met all the learning outcomes. As well, we anticipated

that through the artform of opera we could improve student interest and engagement in music

given the holistic nature of the artform.

So why opera?

After one of the academics in the project saw first-hand how primary-aged students in the

Netherlands created, developed and performed their own mini-operas as part of the Yo! Opera

Festival – a festival committed to developing youth opera as a genre – we wondered whether

opera would be an effective medium in developing musical outcomes for students in

Australian primary schools. Importantly, opera is an artistically-valued and respected high-

quality dramatic musical artform that engages cognitive, emotional, sensory, physical and

spiritual aspects of humanity through an integration of all the Creative Arts art forms: dance,

drama, music, and visual arts. The project also provided a unique opportunity for pre-service

and in-service teachers to learn about creating and performing opera.

Planning the Project

The project was delivered as an elective subject offered in the Faculty of Education at the

University of Wollongong and offered to students in both the Bachelor of Primary Education

and Bachelor of Creative Arts (Performance) programs. The subject ran over 13 weeks of

Semester 2 in 2011 (July-October).

The Professional Composer

Involving the specialised artform of opera, an appropriate professional composer needed to be

engaged to work on the project. With his vast experience, skills and knowledge in developing

community-based music compositions, Dr Damien Barbeler was approached and accepted the

offer to work as the composer and co-project leader/instructor. An associate artist (piano) was

engaged to assist in the creation of musical material and provide musical accompaniment.

Keiraville Public School

Initial meetings were planned with the Stage 3 class teachers and school Principal before the

university subject commenced. These meetings immediately yielded an enthusiastic and

positive working relationship between everyone. Early in the first meeting, the class teacher’s

voiced their apprehension about their abilities and knowledge in assisting the university

students in teaching opera to the primary school students. To overcome some of this, the class

teachers and Principal were invited to attend the first class of the university subject where an

overview of the project was clearly outlined and information about opera was given. This

helped to clarify questions about what opera is (the components, structures, devices, etc.),

how we were going to use opera to meet the student music outcomes of the Stage 3 syllabus

and a chance for them to meet the university students who would be teaching their students.

Development of the University Subject

After consultation with the Stage 3 class teachers and Principal, a subject outline for the

university students was developed. It consisted of a carefully planned and sequenced series of

creative workshops, lectures and performances. It required the university students to meet

three major outcomes:

1) Understand the essential components and characteristics of opera;

2) Demonstrate skills, knowledge and understanding in conceiving, creating, writing and

performing their own opera; and

3) Develop a pedagogical and instructional strategy to teach Stage 3 primary students to

create, develop, write and perform their own operas.

The Project

The University

The project commenced in July 2011, with 22 students enrolled in the subject comprising of a

mix of pre-service generalist primary teachers from the Bachelor of Primary Education

program, and music and dance majors from the Bachelor of Creative Arts (Performance)

program.

At first (and expectedly), the university students were very apprehensive about the idea of

them writing and performing in their own operas, as none of them had ever done this before.

We had planned the first 4 weeks for them to learn about opera as an artform and the

components and structures that are needed to create and perform opera. In 2 groups of 5 and 2

groups of 6, the university students workshopped their own ideas and began to create

appropriate stories for opera. Themes of love, death and jealousy were explored through

common plot lines and story ideas such as journeys of discovery, solving a mystery and the

battle for power. After incorporating suggestions such as story/plot twists, hidden characters,

objects of desire or derision, the university students wrote the libretto for their operas. As the

libretto developed, music was composed at the same time so emotion, story development,

energy and character traits could be embedded into the production. After further

workshopping and feedback, the university students presented the first 5-minute act of their

two-act opera in Week 4. After detailed feedback by academics and peers, the university

students completed work on their final act and presented it to the class in Week 6.

The opera my group created was called the “Taco Opera” and was a Mexican

vegetable love story. We had to carefully construct our opera so it told the

story musically and efficiently. We discovered that simplicity was best and our

use of a recurring leitmotif of the Mexican hat-dance tune helped string our

story line together. (University student reflective journal.)

Remaining in their 4 groups, the university students were to then teach the Stage 3 students at

Keiraville Primary School how to create their own mini-operas. Given this next step, one of

the tasks set for the university students was to develop a unit of teaching consisting of 5 one-

hour sessions. After clearly stating and discussing the music learning outcomes of the BOS

NSW Stage 3 Syllabus, the university students developed pedagogical and instructional

approaches about how to teach primary students to create their own mini-operas. Through the

experience of creating, writing, producing and performing their own operas, it was anticipated

that the university students would examine their own process of creating an opera and apply

their existing knowledge of pedagogy and instruction to create and write the unit of work.

The Primary School

From Week 7, the university students and academics worked at Keiraville Public School with

the Stage 3 class teachers, school Principal and students. The primary school students were

highly enthusiastic and expectant. The teachers at the school had prepared them for months

leading up to our first day at the school. At the start of the first session, Damien Barbeler

began by taking all the primary school students, class teachers and university students through

an introduction and warm-up. Damien then discussed how opera tells a story through story

themes, musical themes and musical expression attributed to emotions and events.

The primary school students arrive in the school hall in a buzz of excitement. They sit

in rows near the front and the uni students sit behind them on chairs. This seems to

create a barrier that worries Damien who gets the uni students to sit down on the

floor with the primary students. He tells them that we are all working together.

Damien begins by doing an improvisation for them using different emotions. Children

are laughing and calling out emotions. Then Damien makes up a tune which he sings

to the students two notes at a time. They sing back to him and learn the tune. The

pianist plays a spooky waltz and the children sing the tune they have learnt and then

finish off with improvised spooky noises. They then practice a cut-off so that everyone

finishes at the same time. Then Damien explained what a leitmotif is and they had a go

at making up different motifs. (Academic field notes.)

Damien then split the primary students into 4 groups and gave them each a character from the

Harry Potter novels and told them they had to create a musical theme to represent their given

character:

Damien talked to us about Light motives. A light motive is when someone

enters a room in a mini opera and there is music playing that expresses their

character. We went outside and made up a song using a name twice like

“Harry Potter”. Then we got to perform for the rest of the class. At the end

they told us about how we would make our own operas. The bell went. I felt

fantastic for what we did today. (Primary student reflective diary.)

After this activity, the primary school students and the university students were introduced to

each other, and each were made aware of their assigned opera group. The university students,

primary school students and class teachers then went to their respective rooms to begin

creating their mini operas.

Over the next 5 weeks, Damien, the associate artist and the academics spent time with each of

the groups during the rehearsal period to offer assistance, advice, feedback, and to monitor

progress. The processes initially taught to the university students including writing their

music by graphic notation, creating storyboards, blocking action/drama and using musical

devices such as leitmotiv and dramatic underscore, were used in the sessions to support the

primary students in creating their operas. Progress was slow early on and after just 3 weeks

together the primary students took their 2 week Term 3 holidays. We wondered whether they

would return remembering anything of what they learned. With only 2 weeks left till the

performance, the primary students returned. Not only had they remembered their operas, but

some had even been practising during the holidays.

The Performance

Finally, it’s performance day. Everyone is very excited and the hall is full of families and

teachers. The children exceed expectations with their performances and even the operas that

were struggling have improved enormously. All performances gave students the opportunity

to demonstrate what they have learnt about creating, producing and performing in their own

operas. Feedback after the performance from parents is that this is the best thing they have

experienced at the school.

The children have thoroughly enjoyed this process. They have grown

immensely in confidence and understanding of performance skills. Parents

have been equally impressed with the positive talk and involvement of their

children in this project. Valuable strategies and activities have been provided

to the teachers by the UOW staff, trainee teachers and CAP students. The

project has bought the Stage 3 group of students and staff together as a united

group. (Primary teacher comment from evaluation survey.)

Conclusion

After the opera performances, Stage 3 then developed a DVD of the performance for their

class work. This integration also provided an incentive for them to use technology and learn

about video and sound editing as they all wanted to have a copy of the performance for

themselves. A debriefing session was then held to ascertain the outcomes of the project for

the class teachers, students and their community, and the university academics, students and

the composer. The teachers reported that the students were continuing to sing the songs from

their opera for weeks after they had performed.

This project from the commencement was always going to provide the

opportunity for the Keiraville students to be creative. It allowed all students to

feel valued in their input and step outside their 'comfort' zone. Each group

learnt life skills about; compromising, cooperation and respecting others

opinions. Many students surprised us as teachers as well as themselves in their

ability to perform. It also gave a real insight into the production process of

writing and performing to an audience. This project was a fantastic experience

for the Stage 3 students and teachers. (Primary teacher comment from

evaluation survey.)

The university students expressed that they felt a greater sense of confidence in composing

and performing music, teaching music after the subject/project and that they would use the

process of teaching opera to their own Stage 3 class as an in-service teacher.

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