Teachers Toolkit

The Teacher's Toolkit is a one-stop site for all educational materials associated with Dallas Opera Educational Programs. All tools may be downloaded and used to prepare your students for their trip to the opera.

Teaching Materials

We are pleased to present the teacher's guide and other educational materials for our 50th Anniversary School Performance of Charles Gounod's Romeo and Juliet. The opera is one of the many works inspired by William Shakespeare. One cannot help but wonder how this story came about, whose idea it was and whether Romeo and Juliet really existed.

This tragic love story is centuries old... more fiction than fact, passing through the creative minds of several writers. Its roots date back to 5th century A.D. when sleeping potions were used to stimulate death. The first written version of the story appeared as poetry in 1476, intended as a moral lesson for young adults. In 1530, Luigi da Porta provided the setting of Verona, Italy and gave the young lovers their famous names.

Eventually the story made its way to England where Shakespeare discovered it in Arthur Brooke's "The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet." Using Brooke's version as the basis of his famous play, Shakespeare debuted "Romeo and Juliet" in 1595. He, too, made changes to the tale by reducing Juliet's age to 13 and compressing time from several months to 4 days.

Gounod fell in love with opera after attending Rossini's Otello and Mozart's Don Giovanni. Although warned about the financial difficulties of a career in music, he studied at the Paris Conservatory. Upon graduation, he won the highest honors including the Prix de Rome which allowed him to study church music and choral writing in Rome for 2 years. Gounod composed a dozen operas. His many other works include masses, organ works, cantatas, and motets. Today, he is best known for 3 works. (Romeo and Juliet, his 9th opera which premiered in 1867, his 4th opera, Faust, which brought him international fame and the song Ave Maria.)

It is required that one to two school representatives attend an In-Service Teacher Training for a thorough understanding of the School Performance of Romeo and Juliet. School representative(s) will receive a DVD / CD containing curriculum material with audio / visual aids, the Dallas Opera News newspaper for each student and important reservation instructions.

Teachers that attend an In-Service Teacher Training will receive the full complement of subjects listed below:

Music: Students will read the synopsis of the opera, information on the characters and voice types, listen to CD selections from the opera and watch DVD excerpts. Click here to download Lesson I.

Social Studies: Students will read a biographical article for information, learn about annotated bibliographies and use an annotated bibliography to gather information. Click here to download Lesson I.

Language Arts: Students will review an annotative bibliography, evaluate an annotative bibliography for research, read and discover new information. Click here to download Lesson I.

Math: Students will read for fun and information and solve math problems. Click here to download Lesson I.

Visual Arts: Students will read for information, study a chart, complete a chart and create a personal motto and shield. Click here to download Lesson I.

Click to download In-Service Teacher Training Request Form

Click to download School Performance Reservation Form

If you have any questions about the materials or need assistance, contact the Education Department at 214.443.1082.