Singing Scholars

Room 35 at Harrison Elementary School is decorated with yellow and green paper chains and posters of sunflowers. Piles of puzzles and books line the walls. In an aquarium, a butterfly pushes out of a cocoon and a skinny skeleton leers vacantly from his post on the wall.

But the usual classroom activities do not distract the 32 students in Jacki Mundell’s gifted and talented class, who sit cross-legged on the floor with music sheets in hand.

They’re singing opera.

On Thursday, decked out in handmade playing card costumes, these 6- to 11-year-olds will join professional singers in a production of “Alice in Wonderland” on the auditorium stage of the Eastside school.

The performance is the culmination of the Guild Opera Company’s four-week residency program, in which a professional singer, choreographer and composer visit the classroom to give children a taste of opera production. At the end of the program, students take the stage with company members for a special show held for the rest of the student body.

In a time of diminishing arts budgets in schools, the residency program is the latest effort by the company to expose schoolchildren to the musical experience of opera. The troupe was founded in 1949 to produce opera geared toward young audiences, offering inexpensive daytime shows for Southern California schools.

The company is the second-oldest opera group in California, and unique in its focus on children, said Fran Benedict, president emeritus of the company. Benedict and board member Robert Chauls developed the residency program last year in an effort to further involve students in the art.

“A child should have the experience of a full-scale performance in the theater with the orchestra, but they also need something more intimate,” Benedict said.

Through the residency program, “they get to hear and see and touch the performers. They also get to be on stage, or see their peers on stage and empathize with that experience,” Benedict said.

After working with an opera singer on technique and a choreographer on movement, Mundell’s students will meet with Chauls, the composer of “Alice in Wonderland,” before their show Thursday.

Six other Los Angeles schools are also participating in the residency program this spring.

At a rehearsal less than a week before the performance, the students dismiss questions about opening night jitters.

They sing along confidently with an audiotape of the music as their teacher reminds them to sit up straight and breathe deeply.

“Well, actually once you get used to it and do many songs and have experience at it, it’s very comfortable,” said Mayra Gamboa, a fourth-grade student in Mundell’s class.

Opera is nothing new to this class.

Mundell has been an opera lover since sixth grade, when a teacher introduced her to it.

As a teacher herself, Mundell has worked to incorporate opera--as well as ballet and Shakespeare--into her curriculum for years.

Two weeks ago, her class attended the Guild Opera Company’s production of “The Magic Flute,” which the troupe will bring to more than 18,500 schoolchildren this season in performances around the city.

The company provides materials about the performance before students visit, including the script, posters of the costumes and excerpts from the music.

These resources allow teachers to develop interdisciplinary lessons, said Benedict, who added that the children who attend the company’s performances are better prepared than most adults who go to the opera.

Some students study with a music teacher who visits Harrison intermittently, but most have limited contact with arts such as opera outside the classroom, Mundell said.

“A lot of these children don’t even go out of East L.A.,” she said.

“There are so many opportunities for exposure, but a lot of times the children can’t get there . . . and so it’s important to bring these into the schools.”

The cost of bringing opera professionals into the classroom and a production to the school is $695, and students at Harrison raised money with a Math-A-Thon, collecting pledges for every correct answer they got on a 100-question math test. The company often helps financially strapped schools find foundations or individuals to donate matching funds.

“There are many needs at the school,” said Mundell, who added that she hopes the school can help fund the program next year. “I think the arts are one way to meet those needs, but not everybody agrees. . . . By doing what I did this year, at least I’ve exposed the staff to what’s available.”

The residency program will not solve the woes of schools without arts programs, Benedict said.

“We can’t begin to compare the consistency of a music teacher with a music specialist,” she said. “But at least we can get in the classrooms and show teachers and children some kind of arts experience. And especially opera, because it incorporates all forms of art--the music, the drama, the sets, the dance.”

In Room 35, students take it for granted that opera is part of their curriculum, Mundell said. “I’m very disappointed, because when we went to other schools, they didn’t know about opera and things,” fourth-grader Mayra said.

“They just listen to modern music--they don’t do extra activities for other experiences.”

Eleven-year-old George Blancarte’s eyes light up when he explains the genre to a visitor: “Opera is just another way of expressing your feelings.”

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The Beat

Today’s centerpiece focuses on the Guild Opera Company’s residency program, which offers schoolchildren an up-close view of opera production. For more information about the program or to get involved, call (213) 463-6593.