Students Sing Opera’s Praises

The class took a vote. Those for the idea agreed to immerse themselves in the study of opera in exchange for the opportunity to attend one. Those opposed were outnumbered.

So it happened that Randy Grant’s third-period “Sheltered English” American literature and composition class at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles attended a recent performance of “Madama Butterfly” at the L.A. Opera and, in the process, fell in love with the grandest art of all.

“These are kids who would not normally ever see an opera,” said Grant. “I wanted them to have this experience, but they wanted it, too. They voted to take on the extra course work, and I’m so glad they did. It gave us a lot of good issues to discuss--multiculturalism, racial stereotypes [and] history, not to mention study of the art itself.”

This year, more than 1,000 students participated in L.A. Opera’s program for high schools, which requires teachers and students to study opera as a prerequisite to attendance.

“We want to make sure students have a broad cultural and educational experience,” said Llewellyn Crain, director of L.A. Opera’s Community Programs. “This isn’t about free tickets. It’s about creating a rich life.”

Though L.A. Opera’s community programs have inspired similar ventures across the country, students here are hardly an anomaly. Young people have made opera the only classical art form in America where the audience is not only expanding but getting younger.

In 1995, the National Endowment for the Arts released figures indicating that the number of 18- to 24-year-olds attending opera increased 18% between 1982 and 1992. In November 1998, the NEA confirmed the trend with new numbers, showing that nearly one-third of U.S. opera audiences are younger than 35.

Most of the students in Grant’s class are seniors from Russia, the Ukraine, Korea, Guatemala and El Salvador. Only one student had ever been to an opera prior to the class’ vote. Their willingness to trade book time for a good time underscores the NEA’s remarkable statistics.

“Young people like to be everywhere. They like to experience everything,” said Bladimir Ramirez, 18. “We wanted to see what opera means, so we did what we had to do. It was my first time, and I really enjoyed it. I would like to see another one.”

According to Marc Scorca, president of OPERA America, a nonprofit trade association, “Education certainly does a lot to demystify opera, but so does MTV. There is a natural resonance between our multimedia art form and our multimedia world.”

For the students at Fairfax High, the resonance is pure delight. “All my friends told me not to go [to the opera] because they thought it would be boring,” said Nancy Henriquez, 18. “But it wasn’t boring at all. It was amazing.”