How To Write An Opera
Students across Australia can access an on-line program that teaches them how to write, compose, orchestrate and design their very own opera. The Victorian Opera’s Tim Ryan describes how the Beyond the Stage program brings the creativity of opera to classrooms.
I came across Beyond the Stage as a VCE Music and Drama teacher, trawling the internet for engaging resources during the dreaded COVID-19 lockdowns of 2021.
Immediately I could see the rich learning experience where my students could hear professionals talk about the techniques used in their work. This provided a confident platform to dive into composing their own works, plus, being able to watch a performance on-demand increased the quality of the teaching and learning experience.
Fast forward three years and I’m now the Education Manager for Victorian Opera. Drawing on my experience as a teacher, the company has been able to expand the program. There are now workshops exploring the science of theatre technology, and schools can attend a pre-show Q & A to grill those in non-performing roles. However, the core focus is the Commissioning of New Works workshops.
In 2023–2024 the focus for this suite of workshops is Victorian Opera’s commission, and First Nations work, The Visitors.
Workshops contain interviews and scaffolded learning activities that can be taken in any number of combinations to suit the subject area and learning needs of students. The workshops and performance are available as streamed on-demand videos or as incursions.
Workshop 1: Choosing the Story to Tell. Join author and playwright Jane Harrison as she explores the cultural significance of The Visitors and how she came to the decision to tell this story. Students then use Jane’s advice to choose and begin writing their own story as a libretto.
Workshop 2: Music and the Art of Storytelling. Composer of The Visitors, Christopher Sainsbury, explores techniques he has used to write melodies and ways of manipulating music elements to draw out the meaning in a story. Using these techniques as a guide, students then compose melodies for the story they have written.
Workshop 3: From Page to Stage - 1: Christopher Sainsbury takes us through the orchestration process with the aim of encouraging students to choose instruments that enhance the time and space of the story they have written.
Workshop 4: From Page to Stage – 2: In this workshop we meet Lighting Designer Rachel Burke and Director Isaac Drandic, who take students through the decisions they make to bring a story to life on stage. At the end of this workshop students are asked to create a mood board and create a simple blocking map for the story they have written.
Performance: Available on-demand. Watch the livestreamed performance of The Visitors at a time and pace that suits your students and your learning plan.
Workshop 5: Discussion and Evaluation. This is a live and interactive webinar where students can share their work.
In semester 2, 2024 the focus of these workshops will be the adaptation of Murray Bail’s award-winning novel, Eucalyptus, composed by Jonathan Mills.
In 2025, we move to our commission of The Celestials, written by Ian David Roberts, exploring life for Chinese miners and their interaction with the Kelly Gang on the Victorian goldfields.
Beyond the Stage is our offering in the Victorian Challenge and Enrichment Series, free to Victorian government schools. Non-government and interstate schools pay a low fee of $5 per student for workshops and $25 for shows.