La Fille du Régiment
GAETANO DONIZETTI
EDUCATOR’S GUIDE
A COMPANIONTOTHE STUDENT GUIDE
HOWTOUSETHISGUIDE
Opera offers a unique teaching opportunity to explore the arts through many different disciplines including literature, art, history, science, math, and music. This guide has been designed to provide educators with suggestions on how to integrate the music and historical background of Donizetti's La Fille du régiment into the existing curriculum. For applicable National Standards, please contact Washington National Opera's Education and Community Programs Department at 202.448.3465 or at education@dc-opera.org.
YOURROLEINOPERA
Opera is a collaborative art. It requires the work of many people including the director, designer, singers, orchestra, crew, and audience. The audience is an important part of every performance. As an audience member, your role is to suspend disbelief and imagine that the story enacted before you is really happening, to let the action and music surround you, and to become part of the show. To help your students feel comfortable with their role at the opera, Washington National Opera has prepared some tips for performance etiquette. Please review At the Opera House (in the Student Guide) with your students. Following these guidelines will help everyone have a positive experience!
THE SETTING
Visual/Performing Arts: Directors sometimes set operas in a different location or time period from which the opera was originally set by the librettist. Watch a video of La Fille du régiment either before or after your students attend the dress rehearsal. Compare and contrast the two productions. Are they set in the same time period or is one updated? Be sure to discuss visual elements such as set design, lighting, and costumes as well as the musical and performance aspects. In what other places or time periods could this opera be set?
THE STORY
WHATTODO WHENYOUARRIVE
The dress rehearsal of La Fille du régiment will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m. The Kennedy Center Opera House doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Please plan to arrive early, as latecomers will be seated only at suitable breaks in the music, often not until intermission. Seating at Washington National Opera's dress rehearsals is open. When you arrive, please have your passes ready to present to the ushers who will direct you to the area of the Opera House where you will be seated. The running time for this rehearsal of La Fille du régiment is approximately two hours and 30 minutes, including one intermission.
Theater/Dance: The story and characters in opera can sometimes be complicated. Review the synopsis and characters with your students and have them depict the story through movement to better understand the main events of the opera.
Theater/Creative Writing: Have students write a short paragraph about each of the characters. Be sure to include their physical description as well as their personality traits.
WOMENINTHE MILITARY
Social Studies: Discuss how women participate in the military today. How has this changed throughout history? Divide students into two teams and research current positions for and against women's participation in all aspects of the military. Conduct a structured, formal debate.
Visual Art: Liberty is often personified as a woman. Many artists have depicted her in various forms. Have students draw a picture of what liberty looks like to them.
History: Research the relationship between France and the United States throughout history. Create a timeline of how each country has helped the other in different wars and political struggles.
History: Choose a military conflict in history and research what roles women played in that war. Write about the time period, location of the conflict, and responsibilities to which women were limited.
Social Studies: Discuss in what ways humor and comedic relief are being used to describe war today. Compare this to how humor has been used historically. Find current and past examples in the media.
HISTORICAL TIMELINE
Language Arts/English: Choose an author who lived and wrote during the same time period as Donizetti with whom your students are familiar. While referencing the timeline in the Student Guide, have your students compare (either through a class discussion or a writing assignment) how both artists were influenced by the same historical events.
Art History: Have each student choose an artist on the timeline to research. Write an essay comparing how the artist was influenced by the historical events and how their work represents this historical period either directly or indirectly.
Visual Arts/Art History: Have students choose a visual artist from the timeline and research their most famous works of art. Then have students choose one piece they have researched and create their own interpretation.
TIP
Help your students engage in active listening. Keep listening sections brief at first.
Repeat listening selections at least three times. First for introduction and enjoyment, second for starting, stopping, and asking questions, and third to allow students to recognize the concepts you have discussed. Allow your students time to respond to the music.
MUSIC
Visual Art: Play the music of Donizetti's La Fille du régiment and have students sketch or paint representations of the emotions they feel while listening to the music. Discuss how artists are often influenced to draw, paint, or sculpt works of art based on music.
Physics/Music: Opera consists of both orchestral and vocal music. Have students think about how the sounds are produced to create music. Introduce them to the basic concept of sound waves and have them pick a musical instrument in the orchestra (or the voice) and research how that particular instrument produces sound waves of different pitches. Have each student present how the instrument they have chosen produces sound.
Musical Highlights: Washington National Opera Commentaries on CDSM provides a comprehensive introduction to this opera, but if your schedule is limited, be sure to play the following tracks for your students to highlight some important moments in La Fille du régiment.
Track 5: Sergeant Sulpice and la VivandièreAn introduction to these two important characters
Track 7: The daughter of the regimentRegimental song by Marie, listen for the coloratura!
Track 11: Tenorissimo-Tonio's famous aria with all 9 high Cs
Track 12: Marie's lament-Listen for the English horn as it echoes the soprano's plaintive melody
Track 14 &15: Mademoiselle Marie and Just Marie-Marie's voice lesson that turns into a regimental song
Track 17: Sounds of a Parisian café-concertA trio based on a popular tune of the time
Track 21: Vive la France!-French Patriotism
BEL CANTO & OPÉRA COMIQUE
Music History: Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini are two other bel canto composers who were contemporaries of Donizetti. Research some of their operas (Norma, Il barbiere di Siviglia, etc.) and compare their music to Donizetti's style in La Fille du régiment.
Music: If your class were writing a modern-day opera, what would the music sound like? Remember that composers of bel canto created “beautiful singing,” but also used catchy tunes based on music that was popular at the time. What would the subject matter be and how would the language (dialogue) be constructed? Keep in mind that going to the opera was as common as going to the movies is today.
Music: Research the unwritten formula composers followed to write bel canto opera. Have students listen to a few bel canto operas and see if they can recognize certain patterns in the story outline, characters, and the placement of the arias and choruses.
OPERA PRODUCTION
Language Arts/Marketing: Find examples of program notes from operas or other performances. Research the differences between marketing material and program notes. Outline program notes for La Fille du régiment including information on the composer, librettist, social and historical context of the piece, and the music. Continue your outline with interpretive information including sets, costumes, setting, etc. Remember, program notes are not long. From your outline, write a short article (one page) that will prepare the audience for the performance you have chosen.
Science/History: Discuss important scientific advancements during the time period Donizetti was writing operas (i.e. Industrial Revolution). How did these technological changes affect opera? (Hint: How were operatic stages lit before the light bulb?)
Math: Ticket sales cover only 68% of the cost of putting on an opera. The rest of the money is collected through donations from generous individuals, corporations, foundations, and public sectors. If it costs approximately $2,200,960 to produce La Fille du régiment, ask your students to figure out how much money must be raised to cover the cost beyond ticket sales. Discuss what individuals and corporations you might ask to donate the remainder of this money.
Language Arts/Journalism: Have your students write a review of the performance of La Fille du régiment. After the production opens, check local papers for reviews of La Fille du régiment and have students compare these reviews to their own. While writing the review, make sure students keep in mind these points:
A review should tell a story. It should be written in simple, uncomplicated language. The purpose of the review is not to say whether the music is good or bad; it is to articulate what the music was like both subjectively and objectively.
Be constructive, not destructive, in your review.
Avoid writing in the first person and passive tense.
Follow through on your thoughts to help defend your opinion.
Credits
Writer: Rebecca Kirk
EDUCATIONAND COMMUNITY PROGRAMS
AREMADEPOSSIBLEBYTHEFOLLOWINGFUNDERS:
$50,000 and above
Mr. and Mrs. John Pohanka
$25,000 and above
The Bank of America Charitable Foundation
$15,000 and above
DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts
John and Cora H. Davis Foundation
$10,000 and above
Clark-Winchcole Foundation
Philip L. Graham Fund
Jacob & Charlotte Lehrman Foundation
The Honorable and Mrs. Jan M. Lodal
Prince Charitable Trusts
The Washington Post Company
$5,000 and above
Theodore H. Barth Foundation
International Humanities
$2,500 and above
Mr. Walter Arnheim
The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation Target
The K.P. and Phoebe Tsolainos Foundation
$1,000 and above
Dr. and Mrs. Ricardo Ernst
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Professor Martin Ginsburg
Horwitz Family Fund
Editors:
Education and Community Programs Associate
Graphic Design: Suzan L. Reed
Suzan Reed Graphics
Michelle Krisel Director, Center for Education and Training
Caryn Fraim Associate Director, Education and Community Programs
Stephanie Wright
Education and Community Programs Manager
Hannah Grove-DeJarnett Communications Coordinator
RESOURCES
Online:
National Education Standards
www.education-world.com/standards/national/
Gaetano Donizetti
http://www.gaetanodonizetti.net/welcome.asp
http://www.donizettisociety.com/
Vivandières
http://www.vivandiere.net
http://www.nkclifton.com
/va-cantinieres/history1.html
http://ehistory.osu.edu/uscw/features/articles/0005 /vivandieres.cfm
Science of Sound
http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/linguistics /russell/138/sec4/acoust1.htm
http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys /Class/sound/soundtoc.html
http://www.school-for-champions.com /science/sound.htm
Recordings:
Gaetano Donizetti: La Fille du Régiment (CD)
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Conducted by Richard Bonynge with Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti. 1990.
Gaetano Donizetti: La Fille du Régiment (DVD)
Teatro Carlo Felice
Conducted by Riccardo Frizza with Juan Diego Flórez and Patrizia Ciofi. 2006.
Books:
Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Women and War. University of Chicago Press. 1995. Ashbrook, William. Donizetti and his Operas. Cambridge University Press; Reprint edition. 1983.
Osborne, Charles. Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini. Amadeus Press. 1994.
For more information on the programs offered by Washington National Opera, please visit our website at www.dc-opera.org or contact the Education and Community Programs of the Washington National Opera with any questions and/or requests for additional information at 202.448.3465 or education@dc-opera.org