Skyway third-graders get lesson in opera

Opera, not Oprah.

When Julie Powell asks third-grade students what they know about opera, she sometimes has to clear that up.

“Lots of kids say, ‘I’ve seen Oprah on TV,’ ” Powell said. “Opera is different than Oprah.”

At Skyway Elementary on Tuesday, at least a couple of students had a better idea of what opera really is.

“People have deep voices,” one student suggested. Another said the performers “sing their scripts.”

For a half-dozen years, Powell and other performers from Opera Plus! have been teaching third-graders about opera.

When to yell bravo and brava.

Or bravi.

And even a brief lesson in how to sing opera.

“Their minds are, at this point, open to new forms that get sometimes scorned and not listened to later,” said Leeann Aeryln, a pianist who accompanied Powell and bass baritone William Rhodes during Tuesday’s Opera-tunities performance.

The group performs for third-grade students each year at schools in the Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls districts and the Coeur d’Alene Tribal School.

Rhodes played the roles of a snake oil salesman, the devil and a ladies’ man in three arias he performed for the students.

The man, who stood nearly three third-graders tall, captivated the audience.

He explained that a snake oil salesman was not “someone who sells oily snakes,” but instead peddled potions to men with the promise a sip would make any girl in the village fall in love with them.

That elicited a round of “Ewwws” from boys and girls alike.

“I didn’t bring any,” Rhodes said. “Girls, you are safe.”

As the performance wrapped up, students became part of the grand opera chorus, singing “Fi-ga-ro, Figaro Figaro, Fi-ga-ro.”

“It was really good,” 8-year-old Collin Thompson said. “I like to sing everything in opera – whatever I say.

“Like, let’s go on the swings, the swings.”

Erika Stowell said she enjoyed the performance.

“It was the first opera I’d really ever been to in the music room,” she said. “It was really cool how they sing high and low.”