Unit Guide

Fairy Tales in Performance: La Cenerentola – Where Music Meets Drama

Cecilia Hann

In Fairy Tales in Performance: La Cenerentola – Where Music Meets Drama, fourth grade students will focus on three guiding questions: What are the elements of opera?

How can students be creative when developing a fairy tale with music? What makes the performance outstanding? Following the Delaware Music State Standards and the ELA common Core Standards, opera will allow students to sing and act. Students need to have some prior knowledge in the history of opera specifically, “La Cenerentola” by Rossini. The Disney version of the fairy tale, “Cinderella”, can build background because it is familiar to the students. Students will discuss the dramatic structure of introduction, inciting incident rising actions, crisis, climax and resolution used in the opera “La Cenerentola” by Rossini. Then, the community of students improvises dialogue, invent actions, create songs and add scenery to create their own story of “La Cenerentola”, where music meets drama. Students will evaluate and critique their performance on style, clarity, creativity and collaboration after performing for the students of The Leach School.