“If you can tell a story and sing a tune as you walk down the street, you can write an opera.”
That’s the belief behind San Francisco-based Little Opera, a theater company and after school program for kids, where youngsters can write, produce and star in their own unique opera creations. The company aims to “explode the cultural assumption that opera is not for everyone.”
Two of Little Opera’s key organizers, Erin Bregman and Alex Stein, are currently Participatory Performing Artists in Residency at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. They have been working for two months gathering material from MAH visitors to put together a large-scale opera that will debut at the museum’s Winterpalooza Festival on Jan. 25.
The duo used a website with prompts to solicit ideas about the setting and story of the opera, then worked with visitors at MAH events earlier this month to gather lyrics and work on improvising melodies. The finished piece will go along with the museum’s family friendly winter wonderland-inspired event, which will feature snowman building with socks, a cardboard castle book nook, and wintry sparkle face paint.
The uniquely Santa Cruz opera will tell the story of a Sea Hag and a magical Selkie, who cast a spell over the land to create the perfect snowflake. It will feature two musical numbers created with the help of MAH audiences, who submitted ideas online and at workshops at the museum. See a video of the opera creation process here.
Winterpalooza
Saturday, Jan. 25 from noon-3pm at the Museum of Art and History.
