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2 01 6 2 01 7 O P E R A O N T O U R ! The Opera Observer INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Little Red’s Most Unusual Day About the Performers 2 Music by G. Rossini and J. Oenbach Jokes 2 Story by John Davies Opera Orchestra 3

About Tulsa Opera 4 This year’s opera is based on est Ranger Ball. For that reason Education a very famous story: “Little he leaves a written invitation in Red RidingHood.” Have you a basket of flowers outside Little How to be a good 4 heard or read that story be Red’s house. UnfortunateUnfortunately for audience member fore? The tunetunetunestune for the music Dudley, the basket is delivered are by two very famous com to Granny. Granny simply loves posers: , men, especially men in uniform. who wrote the William Tell In the resulting confusion Dud Overture , and Jacques Oen ley loses his pants, Granny kiss bach, who wrote the CanCan . es the Wolf, Mom gets impa The man who wrote the story tienttienttient and Little Red gets in trou to go along with the music is ble. In fact, everyone experienc named John Davies. Mr. Da es, in one way or another, a very, vies is an opera singer and very unusual day. composer who lives close to Teachers: Use the Little Red’s Most Rochester, New York. Can Unusual Day: Fact or Fiction? and the you find Rochester, New York Little Red’s Most Unusual Day Vocab ulary worksheets to go along with this on a map? Is it close to New story. York City, or far away? There are many lessons to learn in Little Red’s Most Unusual Day . After you see the show, can you and your teacher make a list of these The cast of lessons? There is something Little Red’s Most Unusual Day to learn in every opera! Here’s the story of the opera: Jana McIntyre, (LITTLE RED) To listen to songs from the Gabrielle Reed, soprano (MOM/GRANDMA) opera, visit Forest Ranger Dudley is too Humberto Borboa, (DUDLEY) shy to ask Little Red’s mom, http://operatales.com/little Darren Drone, (MR. BIGBAD) the widow Hood, to the For red.shtml

Gioachino Rossini Jacques Oenbach

Gioachino (pronounced joe Jacques (pronounced ZHACK) ACKeeno) Rossini Oenbach (pronounced OFF (pronounced roeSEEknee) enbock) was a French compos was an Italian composer who er who was famous for his com wrote 39 operas, including ic operas. He was born in 1819 . He was and died in 1880. How old was born in 1792 and died in 1868. he when he died? How old do you think he was when he died? Teachers: Use the Create an Opera activity to go along with this story. P 2 V. 7, I 1

About the Performers

Gabrielle Reed is from California, but now she lives in Tulsa. During college, she competed in the Miss America pag eant as Miss Indiana! She is a soprano, so she sings high notes.

Darren Drone is from Little Rock, Ar kansas and he went to college at the University of Oklahoma! He is a bari tone, so he sings low notes.

Jana McIntyre is from Santa Barba Humberto Borboa is from Mexicali, Mexico, so his native ra, California and now she lives in language (the language he spoke as a child) is Spanish, New York City. Like Gabrielle, she is but he speaks English very well. He lives in Colorado now. a soprano, so she sings very high! He is a tenor, which means he sings high.

Q: What makes music on your Q: What’s a balloon’s least favor MUSIC JOKES! hair? ite music?

A: Head bands! A: Pop music!

Q: What’s the most musical Q: How do you fix a tuba? bone? A: With a tuba glue! A: A trombone! Q: Why was the musician arrest Q: What type of songs do the ed?ed?ed? planets sing? A: Because she got in treble! A: Neptunes!

T O O P 3 OPERA ORCHESTRA Little Red’s Most Unusual Day is performed with piano only, but did you know that most operas are performed with a full orchestra, sometimes with as many as 80 musi cians? Instruments of the orchestra belong to families. Study the names of instru ments found on this page. Write each name in its correct family space. Expand. Tulsa Opera’s relationship with education dates back to 1972, when Tulsa Opera Guild President Dr. Billie McCants made

Tulsa Opera the first Oklahoma performing arts organization to take its art form into the classroom. Since that time, the pro Enrich. 1610 S. Boulder Avenue gram has grown to serve more than 30,000 students each year Tulsa, OK 74119 across the region. p. (918) 5824035 ext. 104 f. (918) 5920380 Opera on Tour! brings you updated, Englishlanguage versions

[email protected] of operas, both new and old, performed by professional singers Enlighten. from across the world. It is a pleasure to bring our tour to your school, and we hope you will join us in our quest to expand, enrich and enlighten through opera edu

cation.

Best Wishes,

Aaron Beck

Tips for Being a Good Audience Member By Aaron Beck, Tulsa Opera Education Director

Have you ever been to an opera? If you haven’t, there are some things I would like to share that will help to make you a great audience member! • Talking during an opera is never a good idea. It distracts others and makes it hard to hear the performers on stage. • It’s okay to clap! We love hearing your applause, because it means we did our job well! (But make sure the song is over before you clap!) • It’s always best to go to the restroom and get a drink before a performance begins. That way, you won’t have to get up and leave in the middle of a song. • If you have a cell phone with you, it should be turned all the way o before the performance begins. • Be on time and don’t leave early. • If you REALLY liked a particular song, there are two words that you should LITTLE RED’S MOST know. BRAVO is what audience members shout at the end of a song to let UNUSUAL DAY the performers know that they enjoyed the song. ENCORE! means “again” in MUSIC BY French, and it’s what you can shout if you loved a song so much you want to ROSSINI AND OFFENBACH hear it again! STORY AND WORDS BY • It’s always okay to shout these two words, as long as you do it at the end of a JOHN DAVIES song during the applause, not in the middle of a song. • Above all else, HAVE A GOOD TIME! We do these performances be Sponsored in part by: cause we love opera, and we want you to love it as well!

As they say in Italy: Ciao!

Teachers: Use the “Audience Tips and Opera Terms” worksheet to go along with this story.