Student Dress Rehearsals

Recommended grade level
High school students 

Major themes
Love and betrayal, power and powerlessness, justice and morality

Summary
This opera follows the Greek tragedy of Medea, who seeks revenge after her lover, Jason, abandons her to marry another woman. Consumed by rage, Medea ultimately kills their children to punish him. A gripping blend of classical tragedy and intense emotion. Sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Recommended grade level
High school students

Major themes
Fate and tragedy, love and jealousy, family dynamics

Summary
Two powerful one-act operas, traditionally performed together. Both operas sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Cavalleria rusticana centers on a love triangle in a Sicilian village, where Turiddu’s affair with the married Lola leads to a deadly confrontation with her husband, Alfio. 

Pagliacci follows a traveling clown, Canio, who discovers his wife Nedda’s infidelity. As the lines between performance and reality blur, Canio murders her and her lover on stage during a play, declaring, “La commedia è finita!” ("The comedy is finished!").

Recommended grade level
High school students 

Major themes
Power, obsession, moral conflict

Summary
This dramatic one-act opera, based on Oscar Wilde’s play, re-tells the biblical story of a young princess dangerously infatuated with the imprisoned prophet, Jochanaan, who spurns her advances. After performing a seductive dance for her stepfather, Herod, she demands and receives Jochanaan’s severed head as a reward. Her response leads Herod to order her execution. Sung in German with English supertitles.

Content advisory
Salome by Richard Strauss is a provocative opera, and it deals with mature themes, including sexual obsession, manipulation, nudity, and violence.

Recommended Grade Level
Middle school students, High school students 

Major themes
Gender roles and expectations, romance, social satire, deception

Summary  
A comedic opera where two men, urged by a cynical philosopher, test their fiancées’ fidelity by disguising themselves and trying to seduce each other’s partner. The women, after some resistance, give in—proving the philosopher’s claim that, “Così fan tutte!” (“All women are like that!”). In the end, disguises are dropped, lessons are learned, and forgiveness is on the table—though not without some lingering doubt. Sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Recommended grade level
Middle school students, High school students 

Major themes
Cultural stereotypes, identity, gender and power dynamics, love and betrayal

Summary
Madama Butterfly tells the tragic story of Cio-Cio-San, a young Japanese geisha who marries an American naval officer, Pinkerton. He abandons her, and years later returns with his American wife to claim the son Cio-Cio-San bore him. Devastated, she gives up the child and takes her own life. Sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Recommended grade level
Middle school students, High school students

Major themes 
Death and afterlife, cultural heritage, love and grief

Summary 
This contemporary opera imagines the afterlife reunion of iconic Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. In one intense day, in a surreal, dreamlike space, the two artists confront their past and their complex relationship, and reach lasting resolution. Sung in Spanish with English supertitles.