Kratz Fifth-Graders Make History with Student-Written Opera
Kratz Elementary fifth-graders made history in the Ritenour School District on Nov. 19 by performing a student-written opera in their school gym.
The opera, How I Became a Pirate, was inspired by the book of the same name by Melinda Long and David Shannon. The performance marked the culmination of a grade-level project that began in early September, led by Kratz music teacher Shannon McFarland and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) teaching artist coordinator Kevin Nicoletti.
McFarland said her dream of having students perform an opera began during the 2023-2024 school year when OTSL performed a short opera at Kratz as part of their Trailblazers on Tour series.
“The students loved it so much that I reached out to see what other opportunities were available,” McFarland said. “That’s when they mentioned the Arts Intensive Program, and we started talking about how it could work at Kratz. I was excited to get kids interested in music—not just the performance, but the entire creative process. I thought this was a beautiful way for students to showcase their talents, explore their interests, and learn about the many careers in music that aren’t directly related to performing.”
The production of How I Became a Pirate began with every fifth-grader choosing a role in the process, including songwriting and singing, dance and movement, instrument composition and playing, or scriptwriting and acting. Each group created their part of the show and rehearsed independently until the final week before the performance.
Although it took time for students to learn how to build on each other’s ideas within their groups, McFarland said they eventually developed a strong appreciation for teamwork and grew to respect one another’s differences.
“My favorite part of the experience was that they didn’t see the other groups’ work until the final week of the project,” McFarland said. “They got to experience all the humor and hard work of the other groups for the first time, just like the audience. The humor they brought to the process was surprising but made it so much fun. They really shined with the jokes they wrote!”
While McFarland worked with the music-related groups and Nicoletti worked with the script-writing and acting groups, teaching artist Mauricio Villanueva worked with other students creating the dance and movement portions of the opera.
While OTSL has collaborated with elementary schools to produce operas as part of its Arts Intensive program, Nicoletti said the Kratz production was unique in its scope.
“One great outcome of separating the groups was that the students saw changes happen in real time,” Nicoletti said. “For example, when the scriptwriters added a storm to the opera, we tasked the orchestra with creating a storm-like song. Similarly, when the scriptwriters decided to include sirens in the story, the songwriters had to compose a siren song.”
Kratz’s production also stood out for its Orff ensemble featuring xylophones and drums, which McFarland incorporated through her specialized training.
“Many of our school operas only have piano accompaniment,” Nicoletti said. “It was exciting to include those instruments in this production.”
Funding for this program at Kratz was made possible in partnership with OTSL and the E. Desmond Lee Fine Arts Collaborative.
