St. Vincent kindergartners perform original opera

Courtesy of St. Vincent de Paul School

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SALT LAKE CITY — The kindergarten class at Saint Vincent de Paul School made quite a splash with their original opera on March 13. The students performed "Swimmy," based on the book by author Leo Lionni. This delightful story showed how one can overcome danger with ingenuity and teamwork.

The story starts deep in the sea with a happy school of little fish. The sea is full of wonders but also danger. The little fish are afraid to come out of hiding until one of them, Swimmy, comes up with an idea to help them work together and overcome their fears.

Kindergarten teacher Mary Williams has found a creative way to integrate language arts, drama, music and dance curricula by introducing her students to opera. She was greatly inspired by the "Music! Words! Opera!" class that is offered to educators free of charge by Utah Opera. This is the 13th year Mrs. Williams has produced an opera that encourages the children to use their artistic judgment and creativity to bring their adaptation of a book to life.

For the past few months, the kindergartners had been learning the basics of opera by studying the Magic Flute; worked together to write their own words (libretto) to their opera; and, with the help of composer and music teacher Scott Larrabee, created melodies and their score.

With their bubbly per-sonalities, the kindergart-ners put on quite a performance for other students and their parents.

"It was so wonderful for our children to be exposed to the arts and perform an opera with such a good message," said Jeramie Green, parent in charge of costumes, set and props. "The young performers dove into their parts and successfully worked together. This was ultimately the moral of the story."