Please enjoy this article by a student in DMHS's "Introduction to Journalism" class.
Attending an opera is an opportunity most high school students don’t get. Theater students at Denver Montessori Jr/Sr High recently had their first experience with opera when they attended “Die Tote Stadt.”
“I wanted my students to experience something most of them haven’t had the opportunity to experience,” says Robin Yokel, the DMHS Drama teacher that organized this field trip. “I know many of my students are interested in careers in theater, either performing or tech, and seeing a professional production like this and meeting and talking with theater professionals was a wonderful experience for my kids.” Yokel hopes to organize more field trips like this before the year ends.
“Opera is important to society because it tells important stories and gives patrons a chance to come together and enjoy a live experience made possible by a huge team of talented people,” says Jennifer Colgan, Director of Marketing and Communications at Opera Colorado. “It is a very powerful and emotionally direct artform, due to the combination of drama, stagecraft, music, and use of the human voice in its purest form.”
For DMHS 9th grader Abrianna, it was an awe-inspiring experience. “The set amazed me,” she says.
“As soon as the first scene had its opening curtains I was awestruck! The set was so beautiful and huge!” says 9th grader Isabella.
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| DMHS students attend Die tote Stadt |
The design for the “Die Tote Stadt” set was very detailed and just made the whole set look like we were in the main character’s house. This set was also made for the audience to see people walk behind the main set. Like in some scenes you can see Main Character’s wife’s ghost walk in to talk with him.
The costumes were beautiful and were complicated to make. They were outsourced to a company on the East Coast. “From what I heard the costumes took a long time to make and that work paid off. The costumes were beautiful!” says 9th grader Marisol.
The amazing set designed for the production is intended to be rented out to other opera companies across the US to use in their own productions of Die tote Stadt. Unlike these amazing pieces for the set, the paintings of the artist’s wife have to be replaced for each show.
Die tote Stadt is a story that was created and written by Julius Korngold and his son Erich W. Korngold in 1919. Erich wrote the music, while Julius adapted the libretto from a story. Erich wrote this opera in his late teens and performed in his early twenties. In this story, the Korngolds wrote about a man named Paul. Paul was a painter that lived in Belgium and he lost his wife Marie two years ago. Paul took his wife’s death to heart. He was left with a braid of Marie's hair and a silk scarf that he treasures. He meets a woman that looks identical to his wife named Marietta. He invites her to his house but soon after he passes out and hallucinates a whole relationship with Marietta and ultimately kills her when she destroys the portrait he painted of his dead wife. Then all of the sudden he wakes up realizing that never happened and later decides to move on from his grief.
Jennifer Colgan explains why Opera Colorado chose Die tote Stadt. “We chose to perform Die tote Stadt for the first time in the company’s history for a few reasons. It is often neglected by other opera companies because of how difficult it is to perform, but it has extremely beautiful music and a compelling story, which we thought deserved to be heard. It is also a personal favorite of our Ellie Caulkins General & Artistic Director, Greg Carpenter.”
“I’m glad I went for the experience and it was interesting learning about back-stage production,” Marisol reflected. Isabella was, “glad the opera gave our school this opportunity to go.”
Opera Colorado offers many educational opportunities! For more information check out their website at https://www.operacolorado.org/.
Abrianna Luis-Estrada is a 9th grader at DMHS. She enjoys working in tech in her school's theater productions and takes stage combat way too seriously (sorry, Bella).
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