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Teachers Toolkit
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The Teacher’s Toolkit is a one-stop site for all educational materials associated with Dallas Opera Educational Programs. All tools are meant to be downloaded and used by yourself and your students as part of their overall experience with The Dallas Opera.
If you have any questions about the materials or need assistance, e-mail the Education Department or call 214.443.1082.
We are pleased to present the teacher's guide and other educational materials on the website for our forty-seventh annual Student Performances program. This year’s opera is Tosca by Giacomo Puccini. Seeing a performance of Verdi’s Aida inspired Puccini to become an opera composer. A master orchestrator with an acute sensitivity for dramatic timing and tonal color, he was unrivaled in his ability to create operas where physical passion, sensuality, tenderness, pathos, and despair all meet and fuse. Tosca is an excellent example of Puccini's talents.
One of the most electrifying operas ever written, Tosca is set in picturesque palazzos and forbidding fortresses in Napoleonic-era Rome. Its heroine, Floria Tosca, a famous opera star, sees her life and career shattered by an evil man, the cruel Chief of Police, Scarpia.
We hope that these lesson plans, student worksheets, the interactive website, DVD, and enhanced music CD, as well as the student newspaper, The Dallas Opera News, will assist you as you educate your students through activities and games about music, opera, and the dramatic setting and backstory of Tosca. Only teachers who attend the training will receive the full compliment of training materials.
We are looking forward to seeing you at the opera!
- Music: Lesson I introduces the characters in the opera. Students will learn to pronounce their names, read the synopsis in the Dallas Opera News, listen to the CD and watch excerpts from Tosca on the DVD. Students will review the musical elements in Lesson II, learn about motifs in Lesson III and operatic forms in Lesson IV. Click here for more.
- Social Studies:
Lesson I introduces the composer Giacomo Puccini. Students will read bibliographical information and complete Activity Worksheets. Lesson I explores Gathering Information and Writing Letters. Students will write letters and create a class book. Click here for more.
- Language Arts:
Lesson I introduces Puccini's librettists, Luigi Illica and Guiseppe Giacosa as well as Victorien Sardou, the playwright. This section explains who writes what. Lesson II describes how authors, playwrights, and librettists use words (figurative language) as tools of the trade. Click here for more.
- Math:
The math lesson, "Let's Go to the Opera" explains the mission and purpose of non profit organizations and how they receive their funding. Students will learn how The Dallas Opera is financially supported. They will solve math problems to predict the costs for one School Performance of Tosca. Click here for more.
- Visual Arts:
Lesson I discusses the beginnings of Italian posters and a new style in visual arts and architecture called Art Nouveau. Students will learn about opera postcards and create original works. In lesson II students will visit and read the online lesson about the famous painter Jacques-Louis David who painted the well-known portrait, "Napoleon in His Study." Students will learn about Napolean Bonaparte through art online and create orginal artworks. Lesson III is about story mapping and describes comics as an art form as well as the kinds of artists who use this art form. Students will discuss comics as a form of creative writing and create orginal artworks. Click here for more.
- Miscellaneous:
This section contains opera etiquette, glossary terms, the elements and principles of design, the Tosca crossword puzzle, its word bank and more. Click here for more.
The interactive tools and games can be used directly from this site. Just click on the links below to explore Tosca.
NOTE: In order to access these tools you will need to have FLASH installed on your machine. If you do not have FLASH, click here to download.
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