By George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Ira Gershwin
AN EDUCATOR’S GUIDE TO THE OPERA LOOK-IN
Porgy and Bess illustration by Richard Waldrep
LESSON STARTERS
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 and accompanying CDs prepare the students for the Opera Look-In and can also be used as stand-alone classroom activities and resources for teachers. For applicable National Standards, please contact Washington National Opera at 202.448.3466 or at education@dc-opera.org.
WHAT WILL YOU SEE? Based on a story by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and set to music by George and Ira Gershwin, Porgy and Bess takes center stage for the 2005-2006 Opera Look-In. You and your students will experience demonstrations of musical and technical special effects, as well as a performance of scenes with full staging, costumes, and orchestra. The performance will be sung in English with English supertitles projected above the stage. The estimated running time for the Opera Look-In: Porgy and Bess is 50 minutes with no intermission.
Music Many solo vocalists and instrumentalists have recorded Gershwin’s “Summertime,” from jazz saxophonist John Coltrane to rock star Janis Joplin to rhythm and blues singer Fantasia Barrino (of television’s American Idol fame). This classic American song is actually based on the blues, the same unique musical style in which Jasbo Brown, the pianist in Porgy and Bess, plays. To assist you with these listening activities, please cue your Porgy and Bess excerpt CD to Track 1, Introduction: “Summertime” (4:53). Have your students listen carefully to see if they can identify which instruments (strings, xylophone, horns) are featured in the actionpacked introduction (which in the full-scale opera leads into "Jasbo Brown's Blues"). Ask them questions such as: “How do the rhythms make you feel?” and “What woodwind instrument (clarinet) comes in continued on page 2