'Crescendo' at the Operahouse of Florence
Click here for the italian version
Fiorella CAPPELLI Florence, Italy
'Crescendo' at the Operahouse of Florence Click here for the italian version
In collaboration with the Florence Maggio Musicale Fiorentino theatre, I conceived a meeting experience of the Musical Opera for children: the "Crescendo" project is realized at the Florence "Musica & Arte" Study Centre and promoted by the Department of Education of the Municipality of Florence.
The participation in the initiative is free for the children, coming with their parents to the theatre representation on Sunday afternoon: while the adults are taking part in the musical show, children stay in an adjacent room and re-create the opera, by playing the roles of the characters and performing the dramatic action. I select a fragment of our report dedicated to Aida.
"Aida is sad because she doesn't know whom to support, her father or her fiancé".
Parents, with their tickets in their hands arrive at the Maggio Fiorentino Theatre. They enter, hesitating, in the hall and look around, since they are surprised to find there mirrors, (the hall is used by the corps de ballet), make up items, theatrical costumes, lances, shields and musical instruments.
Adults and children need to be reassured and ask one thousand questions about "Crescendo" an original initiative in a musical theatre. Parents leave and go to see the performance (the real one), while we gather the children in a circle, and wait for the latecomers. On this occasion, we realize how many participants there are and how young they are: surprisingly, we count forty children between four and nine. We introduce ourselves: there are five of us, that is the operators of the Centre, a piano player who follows the recording and will play live, three music teachers and a movement expert. We ask the children whether they are informed about what we will do together, whether they know the story of the opera, the name of the main characters. They all answer that they don't. A child, Margherita, tries to remember something about the story, but she gets confused and talks about Cleopatra. It doesn't matter, we reassure her, our game will consist right in discovering together what happens in the opera. At 3,30 p.m. we shut the door and our representation of "Aida" begins. Surprisingly, the room is invaded by the Triumphal March: no-one among those present resists the temptation of moving, the faces of the children become wreathed in smiles. We ask, whether it is a march or a dance and also, whether it is sad or happy. The answer is clear: everybody is marching. At the end, we discuss with the children about the composition of an army and about who goes against the enemy first: 'the warriors with the weapons', they answer, turning their eyes to the lances, leant in the corner of the room. 'Not only warriors, but also musicians with their trumpets and their drums who usually precede the warriors in the battle', we specify. The conversation ends with our request: 'Who wants to be the drum player and who wants to be the warrior with the lance?' The inevitable breaks out (they like lances too much) and after a few moments, the roles are assigned: the children mime, while marching, their character.
A short break. Everybody sits down.
We go on, creating small meaning units, whose dynamic is almost always the same: we alternate a listening, expressing itself through the movement, and whose aim is to grant an instinctive impact through the music, to a brief reflection and cognitive reworking moment of the sensations felt.
We let the discussion go on for a few minutes freely, then we synthesise the concepts emerged and their interconnections: if there's a triumphal march, there's a war; if there's a war, there's a hero, too. 'How is the hero?' we ask, 'Beautiful, very beautiful' the children shout. 'Is he in love or does he think only of war?'
Everybody wants him to be in love, but the listening of the romance ' Se quel guerrier io fossi' makes everybody feel a little bit bewildered. The romance 'Celeste Aida', mimed through the faint appearing of a little girl, sorts everything out. Those present no longer have doubts: the hero is in love, for sure.
We have reached the moment when Radamès investiture takes place and for us too this is the occasion on which the roles must be assigned: a child will perform every character that we will meet in the brief pathway through the opera. We ask who wants to play the role of Radamès, the Egyptian warrior, whom the whole Egyptian people came to cheer in the Temple, who wants to be Aida, his fiancée, who wants to be the Pharaoh and who wants to be Amneris, his daughter. We also assign the roles of those belonging to the masses, such as the clergymen and the clergywomen, the Ethiopian people in chains and others.
We ask to two little relentless children to play the Goddesses Isis and Osiris: Intuition! As the maximum authorities, the two little children develop, in favour of the common cause, an immediate sense of responsibility.
Having listened to 'Possente Fthà' ('Mighty Fthà), we prepare the scene of the investiture of Radamès and we discuss about the main character's power symbols: the sword, the shield and the cloak.
A child asks the right thing at the right time: 'Against what people does Radamès have to fight'?
Here we are, we, the adults, think. The hard bit begins. Actually, we were wondering whether the children would be able to understand Aida's desperation, Amneris' passion, Aida's and her father Amonasro's difficulties towards Radamès and more.
We didn't want neither to explain the character's feelings in words, nor tell the consequences of their actions. If the musical history had been told, it would have turned all of us into extras, taking off any possibility to be an active, intuitive and emotional part in the drama. We had previously decided to tempt the listening only when it was unavoidable, that is only of those moments, which would determine the fates of the main characters.
Thus, we make Aida sing 'ritorna vincitor..vincitor del padre..mio..dei miei fratelli' ('Come back as a winner.. winner against my father.. and my brothers'). Holding our breath, ready to back down, we observe the children's' reactions and ask them whether this song seems happy or sad to them. They answer that it is both a little happy and a little sad and we ask them whether they understood the reason. A silence, which, in our opinion, lasted an eternity follows, then a little girl's voice breaks the silence, asserting: 'Aida is sad because she doesn't know whom to support, her father or her fiancé'.
We are breathless, as well as some journalists who, talking about our musical theatre experience with children, have described on the newspapers just this scene.
The pathway through the opera resumes with the affirmation of the inevitability of events: Radamès left and somebody else is waiting for his return. It's the moment when Amneris, is introduced to the children. She is the Egyptian Pharaoh daughter, who betrays his love, singing 'chi mai tra gli inni e i plausi' ('Whoever among the hymns and the acclaims'). We ask the children what kind of character Amneris has got, according to them: the comments are the following: she is disagreeable a witcharrogant and so on.
It is not clear whether Amneris is to be blamed as Aida's rival, or if it is the tortuous line of her singing to transmit the sensation that she has a complex and astute personality. Children feel her danger, her strength and haughtiness.
With the Moorish slaves dance the first part of our work ends.
It is the snack moment, which is usually very welcome by the children. During this break, a child after the other is dressed up and is disguised. The piano-player plays the airs previously listened and the children, with their mouths full, vie to recognize them. We watch, happily, how this experience is impressed in their memory. Our didactic anxiety placates, together with their appetite!.
When the snack is over, they are all dressed up and disguised and they have taken on the role and the appearance of their favourite character.
There's no time to admire oneself, in these moments we are fighting not to overrun the show, the real one, performed at a few metres from us: at the interval we have to be ready with lances, shields, crowns and cloaks to reach the hall where the parents are waiting for us.
The promenade begins: the children parade among the spectators who let them pass, addressing to them great smiles. The adults ask about their roles, as if they really were the characters of the opera, rather than children play-acting: 'who are you, and who is he?' 'The Pharaoh', 'the high Priest'...
The real show and the mimic one, blend in a single game.
All rights © Fiorella CappelliClick >TO TOP
GO TO MusicAnd ATELIER MUSICA & ARTE: ACTIVE SOUND SPACES FOR BABIES AND CHILDREN TO 11 TO PIONEERS-index
E-mail: MusicAnd(< click) This page belongs to: http://www.multimania.com/musicand
