Elementary students get sample of a professional opera performance

By Violet Spader Staff Writer

March 26, 2008 12:40 am

— With “cat-like tread,” members of Eisenhower Elementary School honor choir performed Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance” alongside professional opera singers Tuesday afternoon.
Music teacher Mary Dikes heard about the program, Opera for the Young, from colleagues in-volved with Okla-homa Music Educa-tors’ Association.
She said she thinks the performance was “pretty well enjoyed” by the students performing and those in the audience. If the opportunity presents itself again, she said she’d do it.
Five professional opera singers, as well as a pianist, came to the school as part of Tulsa Opera’s 60th anniversary state tour’s “The Pirates of Penzance.” The tour is a commission of Opera for the Young, a Wisconsin-based organization which brings professional opera to elementary schools across the Midwest.

Honor choir members played chorus roles of pirates, wards and constables.
Taylor McClelland, a fourth-grader, played one of the timid constables, and said her favorite part was when the constables ran into each other, fearful of the impending fight with the pirates.
Madison Krumm, also a fourth-grader and a pirate, said they practiced a lot to get ready for the performance. The Honor Choir meets twice a week and since mid-January has been practicing songs from “The Pirates of Pen-zance.”
In preparation for their debut, students learned about opera and about “The Pirates of Penzance” in particular. Dikes said the music the choir members sang, provided by Tulsa Opera, was “accessible” for students.

“The Pirates of Pen-zance,” or “The Slave of Duty,” premiered Dec. 31, 1879, in New York. The plot is about Frederic, a pirate apprentice recently released from his duties as a pirate, and his struggles to remain a law-abiding citizen. Well-known songs from the opera include “Poor Wandering One,” “I Am a Very Model of a Modern Major General” and “With Cat-Like Tread, Upon Our Prey We Steal.”

Honor choir members participating in the performance were Morgan Powell, Taylor McClel-land, Gabby Dyer, Skylar Brundzo, Madison Krumm, Kylie Buck, Mila Phipps, Alexis Cox, Austin Daigle, Jahmir Clark, Allie Regouffre, Mikaila Decker, Jarret Roebuck, Monroe Neal, Adam White, Ca-mille Cohlmina, Breanna Roebuck and Emily Clow.

“The Pirates of Pen-zance” will be presented by the group at Hayes Ele-mentary School at 1:45 p.m. today.