Peabody’s fourth graders were treated to a performance from the Boston Lyric Opera on Monday as part of a broader effort to expose the city’s younger students to classical music and other forms of music they might not otherwise encounter.
The opera performed a significantly trimmed-down version of Gioachino Rossini’s “Cinderella” to hundreds of fourth-grade students inside the Wiggin Auditorium at City Hall on Monday morning. The performance featured a trio of professional singers, a lone pianist, and a teaching artist. Typically, the opera would feature a full orchestra and run nearly three hours — all in Italian, a fact the performers made light of.
To kick off the opera, Chihiro Asano, portraying Cinderella, began singing in Italian — as she would at any other performance. But, Asano was interrupted by Julia Whitten, playing Clorinda, who reminded her that the students could not understand Italian, prompting the switch to English.
Performing Arts Director Jon Simmons, who spearheaded the event, said he had been trying to bring the Boston Lyric Opera to Peabody for some time, but the two sides could not find a date that worked. Once Simmons was able to secure a date, he wanted to ensure as many students could be exposed to the programming as possible.
performed by the Boston Lyric Opera at City Hall on Monday.
That meant undertaking the task of bussing hundreds of elementary schoolers to the Wiggin Auditorium, getting them seated for the performance, and then shuttling them back to their respective schools. Simmons and Assistant Superintendent Mark Higgins, with the assistance of the Gravel Family Foundation, were able to do so successfully.
“We can’t do stuff like this without some financial backing here and there, and they are just so generous,” Simmons said in a telephone interview Monday. “I’m so grateful for their support.”
As for the performance itself, Simmons said the opera was able to maintain the “flavor” of the original material, while still offering a pared-down version that would be easier to digest for a younger audience. He pointed specifically to the fact that the performers kept the operatic singing style intact and each of the voice types — mezzo, soprano, and tenor — were “what one would hope.”
“The opera company did an exceptionally good job of preserving the main elements of opera and packaging them with a story in a way that was accessible with fourth graders,” he said.
A pair of students got the chance to join the performance, too. Allysen Patten played the role of Tisbe during a scene where she and Clorinda were getting ready for the ball, donning a black and pink boa to take on the role. Joao Vazzoler also took to the Wiggin stage, portraying Prince Ramiro for a scene. Vazzoler was given a fake mustache and crown to wear as he played the prince during the ball.
Simmons said he settled on opera as the form to expose students to because it features a story, and thus has a plot younger kids can follow as the music veers into territory they may not be familiar with. And, Simmons said he wanted to bring a concert experience to students.
As a form, opera has unique elements unto itself that set it apart, which the performers were able to highlight Monday morning.
“They were able to bring that out in their production, which was delightful,” Simmons said.
On Monday students got to hear “a different kind of singing, the kind of singing that doesn’t have pitch correction, or amplification for that matter,” Simmons said.
“A kind of singing that is even different than musical theater in that it is ornate,” he added. “To hear the music performed in a room that was originally built as an opera house, was… the experience that I was going for.”
