Opera, Wombats, and Innovation

Photo Credits: Andrew Schwartz

"Coloratura", a term from Italian meaning “to color”, is used in opera to describe the melodic vocal qualities of a soprano.

I named my project “Coloratura” to honor the confluence of art and music,  however, most of the world still sees ‘coloratura’ as an opera-related term.  Thus, the mechanics of SEO and internet keywords often mingle my Coloratura content with videos of dramatic sopranos executing lively vocal trills – beautiful, but not quite my target audience!

Fortunately for me, this same SEO wizardry allowed my Coloratura article published by KCUR last September to find its way into the inbox of Neal Long, the Director of Learning for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Although he quickly deduced that my project had nothing to do with tragic sopranos lamenting lost love on an opera stage, he was nonetheless intrigued.

Over coffee, we chatted about his latest project, “Listen Wilhelmina”, a lively children's opera involving wombats and audience etiquette. When he asked if I wanted to adapt Coloratura for a post-show educational experience and curate additional activities, how could I resist? My fondness for idiosyncratic marsupials, multi-disciplinary educational experiences, and a good old-fashioned challenge ensured a resounding YES!

To accommodate the high volume of workshop attendees (~15-20 kids every 10 minutes for an hour), we built new Coloratura interfaces just for the event, and with them we added a new feature: each set of brushes played a different instrument.  

At the "horns station", students creating strokes of color were rewarded with a low, lingering drone. At the "piano station", brushes dancing on the canvas birthed a beautiful arpeggiated melody, while students at the “percussion station” happily tapped their brushes against the canvas to play bongo sounds or hi-hat hits.  

Beyond the Coloratura workshop, we hosted four additional simultaneous activities: a whimsical wombat fashion show, an engaging percussion petting zoo, a mad libs storytelling exercise, and an energetic dance workshop. The event was a roaring success and an absolute delight for everyone involved. My gratitude is boundless for Neal, our awesome co-facilitators, and the entire KC Opera team.  Thank you for affording me the opportunity to curate such an entertaining activity! Stay tuned for future collaborations!