La Cenerentola An Educator’s Guide to the Student Performance of La Cenerentola by Gioacchino Rossini
How to Use this Guide Opera offers a unique teaching opportunity to explore music through many different disciplines from literature and drama, to history and art. This guide provides a few examples of ways to enrich your classroom curriculum through the National Washington Opera’s Student Performance of Rossini’s La Cenerentola. For applicable National Standards, please contact the Education Program Manager of the Washington National Opera Center at 202.448.3462.
WHAT WILL WE SEE?
LANGUAGE ARTS • Begin with any known opera, musical, play, book,
You will see a full dress rehearsal of Rossini’s opera, La Cenerentola in the Kennedy Center Opera House. The dress rehearsal is the final run-through of an opera before it opens to the public. The characters will be in full costume and makeup, the opera will be fully staged, and a full orchestra will accompany the singers. Because it is so close to opening night, the dress rehearsal is often a run through, but there is a chance that the director or conductor may ask to repeat a scene or two for corrections. Please note: the dress rehearsal is the last opportunity the singers will have on stage to work with the orchestra before opening night. Since vocal demands are so great on opera singers, some singers may choose to mark, or not sing in full voice, during the dress rehearsal in order to preserve their vocal chords for opening night. The rehearsal will be sung in Italian with English surtitles projected above the stage.
or movie. Develop a sequel that describes the events of the next day.
• Choose one of the many versions of the Cinderella story. Create a graphic organizer to compare and contrast the main characters of that version to the characters of Rossini’s La Cenerentola.
• Many stories are taken from their original context and updated to fit a different era or setting. Write your own version of the Cinderella story based on a society or culture that is important to you. Be sure that it reflects social relationships, political climate, and/or other details to accurately capture that culture.
• Operas, operetta and musical theater pieces are often based on literature, including fairy tales, novels, and plays. Take a novel or play that you have studied and create a libretto out of the story line.
HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES • Study the history and politics of Rossini’s time, particularly the year when La Cenerentola premiered (1817). What authors were popular, what scientific continued on next page